Havoc and Retribution

Lady Death

"Man, even Jay's ancestors are complicated women," Tony says when Clint and Nat have finished telling the Avengers about Sigyn being Victoria Strong. "And they both have that same unintentional sense of irony it seems." He shakes his head. "Complicated women, indeed."

"Sigyn was here all along," Thor murmurs. "I suppose it does make sense since Jaycee is her great-granddaughter, but we all thought she was long dead."

"But to found Warren Biochemical?" Steve asks, crossing his arms and leaning against the island. "Why would she do that?"

They are in the kitchenette in the Avengers Tower, the very same one where Steve ate pot roast with Jaycee long ago. He can feel their ghostly past selves here and it gives him aching chills because Jaycee is gone, so so very lost. Natasha and Clint returned from investigating Warren Biochemical mid-afternoon. They'd found Thor in an absolute tizzy because Loki had completely disappeared from under their noses and no one has the slightest inkling of where he was.

Once Frigga had calmed Thor down and they had all managed to find some semblance of control, Nat and Clint had debriefed all of the Avengers on what they found. Sigyn arrived on Earth sometime in the 1910s, came to America in the 1920s and eventually ended up founding Warren Biochemical, for reasons that are still unclear. Nat and Clint had unearthed more documents in their search, although not many were any more help than the sepia photograph of Sigyn.

But the fact is that Sigyn formed Warren Biochemical in 1935 and started various projects that seem to have something to do with Vanir clairvoyant powers. Was she experimenting with her own powers? Maybe she was losing them over time and trying to find a way to tap into her magic? Many theories are voiced over the next couple hours, but none seem to stick.

Especially because eventually the company was run by Tyr and Jaycee Strong became an experiment.

"We're still missing lots of pieces," Barton acknowledges. He hesitates, then adds. "But I think perhaps the Trickster may be able to find those pieces better than we can."

Natasha gives him a critical look but does not agree. "He's still a liability," Steve retorts, clearly still not happy with Loki about... well anything. "We have no idea what he's thinking."

Frigga nods at his words but her own contradict him. "It is true Loki is capricious. It is his nature. But he does have a particular knack for finding out things other people want to keep hidden. And he's wily enough to do so without hurting her. I'm sure of it."

"Regardless of whether he wants to keep Sigyn or Jaycee safe," Tony interjects. "I hate to tell you Queenie, but I don't trust him."

"You shouldn't," Frigga says. Her gaze on him is enough to make him mumble an apology for calling her Queenie. "One does not trust my errant son," she says with a small smile. "One simply has faith that he will act in his own self-interest. Sometimes that aligns with your interest, and when it does, he is a very powerful ally to have."

Steve finds himself internalizing her words, hearing the truth in them. He meets Frigga's eyes. "And you think his interest aligns with our?"

"Perhaps," she says. "I'm sure he wants to survive whatever madness Hel is planning," she says with a little bit of a sarcastic edge that surprises Steve. He realizes that perhaps some of Loki's sarcasm is more nurture than nature. "And," she adds, "He does genuinely care about Sigyn. Solving the riddle of her disappearance has been on his mind for decades. He does not like unsolved riddles."

Tony is quick to catch the fact that she has said Loki cares for Sigyn. "And Jaycee?" he asks her. "Do you think he cares for her?"

Frigga takes his question under consideration seriously. "I think he cares enough to end her if he has to," she says bluntly. "He saw Sigyn in her, enough that he developed feelings for her," she tells them honestly. Having seen how Loki acts with his mother, the Avengers are inclined to agree with any of her assessments of his character. "But he also knows.... he knows what it is to lose his identity. My husband... broke the truth of his adoption to him rather... bluntly. He knows what it is to lose a piece of yourself and transform as a result. He sees that in Jaycee, knows that she has given herself over to Hel completely now and he will take that into account when he does the calculus of how he will act."