Transparent ❅ Loki

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BENEATH her feet was a circle of golden light. Before she could step aside, Syn fell through the concrete sidewalk and onto a wooden floor. The air had been knocked from her lungs at the sudden impact.

"Another Asgardian?" It had taken a second before she spotted who the voice belonged to. A man emerged from the shadows. He wore a red cape with thick, yellow leather gloves and blue robes. Around his neck was an odd necklace. The stone inside the eye-shaped pendant glowed with a green light.

The power was familiar.

This mortal wielded an infinity stone.

She reached behind her back, finding the hilt of the small throwing dagger tucked within her belt as she stood. "Who are you?" Syn asked, placing mental and physical protections over herself.

"Doctor Stephen Strange," he answered, suspicious but unmoving. "Master of the mystical arts," he supplemented, unsure if that title would mean anything.

Syn straightened, hand falling away from the dagger. It would seem this man could prove to be a powerful and useful ally. "I need your assistance, wizard."

Stephen Strange gave her an incredulously look and the laughter that followed was dry and humorless. "That's funny," he started, holding up a trembling gloved finger, "because I was actually about to tell you Earth isn't open to visitors at the moment, so pack it up and leave sweetheart."

The Goddess of Truth felt a wave of deep anger swelling within her being. It surfaced in the form of a ring of pale violet light around her grey irises. "I must return to Thor and Loki," Syn grit out, holding back the power seeking to escape from her body. "It is urgent, wizard."

The mention of the two gods surprised him. "Follow me," he said, waving her in the direction of a grand set of stairs. Familiar energy set Syn at unease, regardless, she followed the wizard. They both halted when a large green figure came crashing through the ceiling, crushing the staircase below.

Syn looked into the gaping cavity, Strange did as well. The Hulk was gone and in his place was the mortal scientist. "Banner?"

Bruce Banner pushed himself from the wreckage, holding his pair of stretched brown pants up at the waist. She magicked a blanket and wrapped the coarse grey wool around the scientist.

"Syn-" he started but she could not pay mind to what he was saying. The Goddess of Truth looked around, confused.

Dark magic had sent Banner here, the same dark magic that Odin had used to send Thor to retrieve Loki. "Where are the others?" She dared ask, already fearing the worst. Her pale eyes slipped shut as she tried to reach out with her and find Loki or any of the other Asgardians that shared in arcane practices.

There was only a haunting silence.

"Syn, I'm-" Bruce shook his head "-I don't know." Thor had been forced to his knees, beaten and bloody, and Loki was nowhere to be seen but there had been dozens of corpses. "I'm sorry," he breathed. Syn's expression had grown hollow. Her face a solemn mask that hid the internal workings of her mind and heart. A trait she shared with her husband.

Bruce Banner glanced between the Goddess of Truth and Stephen Strange. "He's coming."

Syn straightened. Now was not the time to mourn when the universe was at risk. She would not let the people that Thor spoke so fondly off perish by Thanos's hand. Her unnervingly pale gaze shifted from Banner to the wizard. "We must prepare this realm's defenses." Stephen looked down at her, considerably unamused by the tone in her voice. "Assemble this band of heroes that you call the Avengers."

"You're giving orders now?" Strange asked in disbelief.

"Dude," Banner interrupted, shaking his head at Strange, "just don't."

ஐ ஐ ஐ

Tony Stark looked at the white-haired woman with a confused expression. It was obvious she was not of Earth. Really, it looked as if she had just stepped out of some fantasy fairytale land given her armored gown and the daggers on her belt. He suspected she was Asgardian. He pointed to her and looked at Bruce and Stephen, expecting an explanation. "Who is she?"

Bruce continued wringing his hands together. "Loki's wife," he answered before she could answer for herself. Syn lifted her gaze.

"Reindeer Games is married?" Tony asked, incredulous. He'd seen and heard plenty of weird shit, but that could almost take the cake.

"Yeah," Banner answered, "and to be honest the P.D.A. between those two was borderline disturbing."

Tony turned his attention back to the Goddess of Truth, crossing his arms over his chest. "Where is he then?" He asked, shifting back and forth on his feet.

Despite Bruce's vague answer to the whereabouts of Thor and Loki, she knew, deep down in her gut that Thor, Loki, and all her people were dead. If that was not true, then she could not fathom why Thor was not standing in Banner's place. "Dead," Syn answered, biting down on her lip to stop the tremor in her voice.

"What'd you say his name was again?" Stark asked.

"Thanos," Syn replied, gaze shifting between Tony and Stephen. "He tortured my husband," she told them. After his return to Asgard, she had seen his twisted memories after falling into the Mad Titan's grasp. "And forced him to attack your world."

Banner nodded, and Tony drew in a deep breath. This was a path that would lead down the road to his worst fears. Silence fell over the room, permeated by the sound of civilians screaming in the streets. "They're here," Syn announced, her attention shifting to the pulsing green stone that hung about Stephen Strange's neck, "they've come for the time stone."

Stark had already left to investigate but the wizard turned, looking down his nose at her. "Stay here, Elsa," Stephen remarked, cloak falling back onto his shoulders as he followed Tony out into the street, "we can handle this."

Syn wasn't a fighter, but she wasn't one to stand aside and watch either.

Elemental magic was pesky to master and risky to use, though at the moment that seemed to be her best option. She spoke the incantations from memory and felt a rising power yearning to be released. Unlocking the control of the elements was not an instantaneous feat but one that took time, yet the results could be devastating.

Filled with the primal power, Syn raced into the street.

It was not Thanos himself that had come, but his children. Ebony Maw stood over an unmoving Stephen Strange. Syn leaped between the wizard and Maw. With a wrist flick, the very flames of Muspelheim had been unleashed in a violent whirlwind, sweeping through the desolate city street.

The fire had pushed the child of Thanos back and singed his hair and robes. Enraged by the new challenger, Maw lifted a multitude of objects into the air and began throwing them at her with slight movements of his head and hands.

She had dodged the first couple of things thrown but left no time to dodge the slab of concrete and steel that was flying in her direction. Syn threw her arms up in front of her face and braced for the impact. It came hard and sudden, knocking the air from her chest and causing dark blotches to form in her vision.

Syn's arm was trapped between two pieces of rebar. One of them dug into her skin, slicing flesh as she pulled it free. Gathering her strength again, she pressed against the slab of stone that had pinned her to the ground and began to push. With enough leverage, Syn began to rise, lifting the slab above her until she could toss it aside.

Immediately, her gaze turned toward the sky. The ship was leaving. Stark and Strange were nowhere to be seen. Syn stumbled over the rubble, holding a bloodied arm. Banner was only a few feet ahead of her. He'd bent down and picked something up.

"Bruce?" The Goddess of Truth asked, looking at the contraption in his hand. The small screen was cracked, and one of the numbers on the pad had been crushed but there was a name on the screen. Steve Rogers.

He looked up at Syn. "I'm going to make a call."