The Old Gods | Book 2

Twenty Five: Eventually

Thor's eyes pleaded with the goddess to let him out. Stop this madness, he said. Put an end to this. Helpless is the god of thunder locked inside that cell. He cannot stop his brother.

"I am sorry, Thor." she says. Allowing the soldiers to guide her away. Thor shouted after her, pleading with her to stop. His brother's laughter stopped him from calling for Sigyn. Then his eyes turned angry at his brother. He tightened his hammer in hand.

"So loyal." Loki noted, looking after where Sigyn left with his men. "How lonely you must be, brother? Without a wife... without Jane."

"If you do anything to her!" threatened Thor, with a victorious boom.

Loki smiled. "How lonely it must be to love a mortal." he says. "The humans, they think us immortal. Shall we test that?"

Bang.

The soldier standing by Loki falls to the ground. A willow of smoke rising from his chest. Loki's eyes trail upwards to an agent in the doorway. An alien weapon in his hand. "Move away please." he asked, a voice soft and charming enough to get what he wanted. The tesseract fulled weapon in hand is more convincing.

Loki slowly lifted his hand away from the switch that would drop the cell from the ship.

"You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?" agent Coulson said.

Something penetrates his back and out through his chest. A sharp breath of shock escaped his mouth.

"No!" bellowed Thor, slamming his arms against the glass in any means to escape and help his dying friend.

The illusion of Loki behind Agent Coulson is holding a scepter which the blades penetrated right through his body. He slummed Agent Coulson against the wall and disappeared. Loki sauntered over to the dying man, blood staining the metal of his scepter. He gestured to the weapon solemnly as if to say 'Look what you made me do'.

Loki flips open the control switch and presses a button opening the hatch beneath the cell. The deafening sounds of the winds roared, tussling Loki's hair and coat. Loki gives his brother one last look, his hand hovering over a joystick.

Thor stares at his brother, a glint of disappointment in his eyes before Loki pushes down the joystick. The hydraulics on the cell released and Thor was dropped from the Ship. Loki lingers for a second, with no remorse in his eyes. His hand flicked the joystick back into its upright position, closing the hatch before going to walk away.

"You're going to lose." Coulson spattered, in a soft voice, stopping Loki, who turns back to look at the dying man.

"Am I?" he asked.

"It's in your nature."

He scoffed. "Your heroes are scattered." Loki takes a few steps towards Coulson, "Your floating fortress falls from the sky. I have taken back what I wanted. Where is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction."

"I don't think I..."

Coulson fired the weapon at Loki, a fiery blast hits Loki causing him to crash through the wall behind him. He smiled. "So that's what it does..."

LOGYN

The goddess hurriedly followed the guidance of Loki's puppets. They break through a door and gushing strong winds blow through the corridor whistling like howling dogs. They step out onto the runway escorting the princess. The winds from the collapsing warcraft whips around Sigyn's hair and loose loin cloth. The deafening howls of the whining ship made it impossible to hear anything. Not even the roaring engines of the quinjet which they walked her to.

Anything loose on deck slides across the runway, aircraft breaking away from its tethers and falling from the edge of the ship. Sigyn skipped her way onboard the jet and turned to look back as the soldiers following orders, took their seats.

She is waiting for him. Watching the door she came out from. At times this all just felt like a silly dream. She would wake up at any moment and be without him. Nothing felt as it seemed. He isn't really here.

Loki came through the door taking long stripes across the tarmac. A smile spread across his face as he approached Sigyn. His arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her close and he placed a quick passionate kiss on her lips. He was happy to have her at his side again. She smiled against his lips as he guided her to a seat next to him as the quinjet took off, the ramp closing.

She then smelled a strange smell emanating from Loki. "Did you... catch fire?" her eyes gaze at the scepter in hand and a dried red substance on the blade.

"No." Loki adjusted his position. "It was a weapon Agent Coulson fired. It was my understanding that he was a friend to you?" he questioned, already knowing the answer. He knows this. Agent Coulson was there when Thor was banished to Earth. Agent Coulson was the man integrating the god of thunder without an idea of who he really was, until Thor earned his worthiness back.

She is too afraid to ask, even yet, "Did you kill him?"

Loki glanced at Sigyn from the corner of his eyes. Sigyn let out a breath and sat back in her seat, receiving the unspoken message that Agent Coulson is dead. She looked down at the scepter in Loki's right hand. Loki sat back, his left arm hooked around her right arm, his fingers intertwining with hers. She leaned into his side, her head resting against his arm. It's not something she could ponder over.

All mortals die eventually. But it was this mortal which she was fond of. He was kind and he cared for her when she first came to Midgard. Sigyn felt a sadness in her chest hearing this news.

"Where are we going?" She needed to change the subject.

"Stark Tower." Loki answered, honestly, as if she already knew. His thumb ran up and down her hand. "Where we can start our conquest at the center of this world."

"Is that what you call it?" Sigyn says. "A conquest."

"What would you call it?"

She turned away. "I don't know."

"I am glad you chose my side, Sig." he said to her. "I would have burned this world should you have chosen otherwise." Loki was more warning her what he would have done. 'I can always count on you to be at my side as you always have through the centuries. There is nothing more important to me than having you."

Sigyn looked at her husband. "I still have many questions that need answering."

"In time, my love." he patted her hand. "In time." he promised. Loki was just happy to sit here with his wife at his side again. Nothing else mattered. He wanted to speak with her, and answer her questions. But when they are alone and not with his agents of chaos.