Marvel Short Stories

Epilogue

It's been two months since Wanda got rid of whatever brainwashing Hydra did on me, and although my memories didn't come back right away, she said they would with time, and she was right. My memories started to surface gradually, and although many came in the form of Hydra nightmares, Loki was there to help me through it. As my memories came back, though, Other Me and Shadow appeared less often, and I started to feel lonely. The team helped to fill in the gaps, although the biggest gap I have is still unanswered. As the other parts of me disappeared, so did my ability to copy someone's ability, and I couldn't help but wonder if that girl from so long ago was able to take back her ability, or if she died sometime along the way. Either way, I am slowly, but surely, returning to normal, almost frustratingly as if none of it even happened, the only proof of it being the memories that would often wake me at night.

"Loki," I start, turning around in the bed and looking at him. He looks over, raising an eyebrow expectantly as I try to form the words. I hate using words. Deciding it easier to show him my confusion, I touch his forehead, showing him images of our times together and then what I read in the Hydra files pertaining to him.

"Ah, you want to know how your god of a lover became one of Earth's greatest villains." He wraps an arm around my waist, looking me in the eye. "Are you sure you want to know?" I nod, hugging him as he runs a hand through my hair.

"When your father came to us revealing your death, I refused to believe it. After all, you and my mother were the two people I truly cared about. Freyr said you died by the hand of a frost giant, so I went there for an interrogation." I raise an eyebrow at him, as if asking what kind of interrogation it was and he just chuckles. "They told me you had escaped, but they had no clue and didn't have the ability to search for you. In fact, the only one who did have the ability to send people out to search was Odin, King of Asgard.

"He wouldn't believe you were alive, so I knew the only way to find you was to become king myself. Of course, Thor was chosen to be king, and I... staged a coup de' tat to get the throne. With Thor banished and his father in the Odinsleep, I had just enough time to send warriors to find you. They were able to track you to Midgard, but I couldn't find out where on Midgard. Thor stopped me before I could." Other Me shows up, silent but also wanting to listen in. Loki notices my change in demeanor, but thinks nothing of it as he continues.

"I didn't think I'd be offered an entire army to take over Midgard. I easily took the offer so I could find you, but even that failed." Looking up at the man, I brush a strand of hair out of his face and his eyes move from the wall behind me to my face. "You have no idea how much pain I felt the day I realized I could never return to Midgard and continue my search. And then the day my mother died, I thought I lost everything."

"So what brought you back to me?" I ask, now wondering how he came back to Midgard if he was imprisoned.

"My brother wanted my help to save his lover," he answers simply, shrugging. "I wanted him to be happy, even if I couldn't. Especially since we were no longer fighting for the throne. We fought the Dark Elves together and after the Convergence, he thought I had redeemed himself and brought me here. We had to fake my death so that Odin wouldn't try hunting me down. This was the best opportunity I could get to find you, and as it turns out, you ended up coming to me." I smile at that, snuggling up to him and he laughs. Other Me smiles softly, smiling at me and I know this will be the last time I see her as she fades away, finally hearing what she had been waiting to hear for decades. That he still loved me even with everything I had done.

"Now it's your turn, my Queen," he says, sitting us up and grabbing my deck of cards from the nightstand. "You weren't always able to do this, you know." He hands me the deck of cards and I chuckle, shuffling the cards with ease.

"It's sometime in July, 1934," I start, dishing out five cards to each of us. "I hadn't been on Earth long, but it was long enough for my wings to get some attention. I think I was here about ten years, earth time already?" I create the illusion of poker chips between the two of us and we look at our cards, getting rid of what we don't need and grabbing their replacements. I got a sh*tty hand, so let's see how this goes. "Hydra had just formed, and they heard about my wings. They had spent some time trying to catch me, and it took them a month, but they eventually succeeded. I'll spare you the details, but there was another girl there, an avid poker player." The two of us continue to raise our bets, Loki smirking playfully.

"Turns out, this was her ability, and she was immune to the brainwashing. I wasn't." I sigh as I fold, and Loki smirks showing a hand worse than mine before taking my chips. Dishing out another set of cards, we keep going. "So after they wiped me, they found a way to take away her power and they gave it to me. It reacted badly to the brainwashing, creating Other Me and eventually, Shadow when I spent the first few years resisting their orders. Because Shadow followed orders and Other Me refused, I became too unpredictable and they claimed me a failed experiment, putting me in cryostasis. I was never supposed to come out of it," I tell him as we call, and this time he truly does have a better hand than me.

"But you did, and I'm the happiest man of the nine realms because of it." I smile at him as he, once again, takes more of my chips.

"I think it was a bad idea teaching you this game," I tell him, looking at his winnings.

"Oh, I think it's a grand idea," he retorts, smirking. "After all, Poker is just a game of illusions." He smirks, and I snicker.

"Cheater," I laugh out, shoving his shoulder. He chuckles, but instead of shoving me back he pushes me down on to the bed, looming over me as he gives me a peck on the lips.

"Now we know who really is the master of illusions," he murmurs, eyes wandering over my body with a hunger.

And I'm just as hungry for him as he for me.

The End.