Though one would never expect Asgard's dungeon, or any dungeon for that matter, to be a location that would engender feelings of cheerfulness and gaiety, after his visions Loki was even more discomforted within its confines than he had been previously the few times he'd had reason to enter. The dark patches that had been evident under his eyes the evening before had vanished and he appeared refreshed physically, though mentally he was troubled. Verda couldn't help but notice as they made their way down a row of holding cells, most unoccupied.
"What are you to do after we're finished here?" Verda asked, attempting to divert Loki's focus from their surroundings.
"I am to meet with my ministers, after that, the security council and then with Heimdall after which I am to hear various petitions as well as bestow my blessing as king on a newborn child."
"That all sounds incredibly dull, except for the last. Why couldn't that be one of my duties?" Verda remarked as they reached their intended destination within the dungeon, Lorelei's deserted cell, Loki having floated the idea that morning of searching it.
Verda stood alongside Loki as she peered into the former living space of her sister. Everything was as Lorelei had left it...the stack of books on the round table, the paper on the small desk, the writing utensil with which she had been scribbling when Loki had approached still lying atop the paper where she had placed it when he had made his presence known to her. Verda and Loki warily stepped inside almost as if they were entering a location known to be haunted.
"What are we looking for exactly?" Verda asked as she picked up a book from the stack on the small table, thumbing through it before turning to Loki to see his image fade.
Verda spun around as the glow of the containment field activated, Loki standing outside of the cell.
"Very funny. I should have known," Verda said before realizing that Loki's face was devoid of the smirk she knew well that he exhibited each time he was successful at pulling off a prank, "No...Loki..."
"You'll be safe here."
"You can't...don't do this...please...Loki..."
"I've commanded the guards to provide you with anything you require. They are to treat you with the respect due you as queen until I return."
"What if you don't return? We pledged that our living and our dying are in each other's care. Did those words mean nothing to you?"
"They mean everything to me. It's the living part I'm most concerned with."
Verda moved to Lorelei's bunk, seating herself on the far edge, her back to Loki, her shoulders slumped.
"I was once told that there was no one you would not betray. I refused to believe it."
"It's not a betrayal. It's for your-" Loki began before Verda interrupted him.
"Go...just go...leave me," Verda said, resigned.
Loki turned his head to look to the control panel before clasping his hands behind his back as he turned and walked away.
****************************
"Thought I'd find you here," Fury said as he entered the gym, the blond man with the athletic physique sprinting past him as he ran laps around the room, completing each in half the time it would take any other physically fit man.
"It's not like there's that many places to look," Steve Rogers said as he once again passed Fury.
"It took seventy years to find you the first time."
"Are they here?" Rogers inquired, ending his run and approaching Fury.
"They're on their way. Coulson's spoken to our Asgardian contact. I expect they'll be joining us soon."
"You sure I'm ready for this?" Rogers asked.
"I think the real question is are they ready for you? You're going to need this," Fury said, holding out a black permanent marker.
"Why?" Rogers asked, taking the marker and examining it.
"You'll find out soon enough," said Fury as he took hold of the edge of a manila folder, thick with papers from where he'd had it tucked under his left arm, "I thought you might want to take a look at this."
Rogers opened the folder, looking at the first page.
"Stark?"
"Tony Stark. Howard Stark's son. Howard and his wife were killed quite a few years back. Car accident."
"Not a flying car, was it?" Rogers asked, recalling the first time he had laid eyes on Howard Stark demonstrating a hover car prototype, "Not the way I expected Howard to go out," Rogers said, looking at the second page, "Bruce Banner...a scientist?"
"People over the years, including Banner, have tried to replicate the process Erskine used on you. No one's quite nailed it yet," Fury said, taking a tablet from inside his jacket, calling up a video before handing it over to Rogers.
Rogers watched, his expression disturbed as he witnessed the titanic green creature on the screen angrily rampaging.
"Guess it didn't exactly go his way."
"He's not like that all the time. Just don't piss him off."
"I'll do my best," Rogers said warily before handing the tablet back to Fury and returning his attention to the contents of the file, "Barton, Romanoff...so we've got assassins, aliens, a guy in a metal suit, a mad scientist, and a hundred year old man you dug out of the ice."
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"So far."
"Not sure if we'll be the '29 Yankees but I guess we'll see what happens. I'm going to go look the rest of this over. When you're ready for me it shouldn't take you seventy years to find me," Rogers said, making his way past Fury towards the gym's exit as he continued to peruse the file, Fury turning to follow him as his phone rang.
"Fury..." he answered, a grin spreading across his face, "Dr. Selvig…"
****************************
Loki rose from the throne, stepping down from it as the beaming, flaxen haired woman cradling an infant approached. Her husband, his hand resting gently and lovingly on her back, led her forward, his face exhibiting a bright smile to match that of his wife.
"My king…" both said, almost in unison, beginning to lower themselves to one knee. Loki held his hand out, gesturing for them to forego the show of deference in light of the baby in the woman's arms, they instead bowing their heads.
"I am Elaina and this is my husband, Olin. We would like to express our sympathy on the passing of your brother," the child's mother said to Loki.
"Thank you. A dark day for all of Asgard," Loki said in acknowledgement, "You've come for my blessing. A son or a daughter?" Loki asked as he could see no clues to discern the gender of the swaddled infant.
"A daughter, Thora, in honor of your brother as she was born on that day. I wish it had been any other, however nature has her own way," Elaina informed Loki as he peered down at the infant.
"As my father says, there is light to be found within the darkness. Is she always so content?" Loki asked, having almost no experience with children and having expected more fussing from a child so young.
"She has a wonderful temperament...until she grows hungry, then she is sure to let everyone know it," Olin, said.
"Then she is aptly named. My brother was much the same way," Loki said with a grin but sadness in his eyes at the reminder of Thor.
Loki extended his hand, placing it gently upon the infant's forehead.
"I, Loki, King of Asgard, bless this child, Thora Olinsdottir. May she be as noble and brave as her namesake and may she know happiness all the days of her life."
"Thank you," Elaina said, smiling as she looked down at her daughter.
"We will take up no more of your time," Olin said.
"Good luck to you," Loki said to them.
Olin and Elaina turned from Loki, traversing down the wide aisle between the tall columns of the throne room. Loki watched them go, Olin's arm around his wife.
****************************
Hank Pym stood outside the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, blocking the scorching desert sun from his eyes with his hand as its rays glared off the sleek black body of the helicopter as it descended from the sky and touched down. After a few moments, Natasha Romanoff, her hair a brilliant hue of red that stood out against the dark background of the helicopter, left its confines followed by the man Pym had come to greet.
As the rotors of the helicopter slowed, the dust from the ground no longer being whipped into a miniature cyclone around it, Pym approached, an ecstatic smile taking over his features.
"Bruce!" Pym called out, approaching Bruce Banner and Romanoff.
"Hank? Hank Pym?" Banner called out in disbelief.
Bruce Banner knew well Pym's feelings towards S.H.I.E.L.D. Both men met, Pym extending his hand, Banner taking it.
"No one knew what happened to you. You went off the radar," Pym said.
"Yeah...sorry about that."
"How are you doing? Fury told me what happened. I'd have thought you'd have known better."
"I'm fine. I've got it under control. I thought you were keeping your distance from S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"Something bigger than any beef I have with them has come up. Let's go inside, get out of this heat. You were in India?" Pym asked, attempting to catch up, as he and Banner walked side by side to the entrance of the facility, Romanoff and the helicopter pilot trailing behind.
"Seemed as good a place as any. There was an outbreak of Chikungunya Fever while I was there. Thought I'd do what I could to help."
"You didn't bring any of that back here, did ya?" Pym asked.
"No. Nothing to worry about."
"Good. We have enough trouble already."
****************************
Loki stood once again in the dungeon, outside what was Lorelei's cell near the control panel for the containment field. Verda lay on the bunk on her side, her back to Loki. She had done some quite extensive "redecorating" since Loki had left her there. It appeared as if a bomb had gone off within the cell. The table now lay across the cell from its original location, the books scattered about the floor along with all the papers from the stack that had once sat upon the desk, the desk itself tipped onto its side. The armchair also lay on the far side of the cell, upside down.
Reaching out, Loki silently disengaged the field, the orange glow dissipated as did the soft, almost imperceptible hum that accompanied it when activated. Verda continued to lay still and silent facing away from him.
"Verda…" Loki said, Verda failing to acknowledge him as he entered the cell and approached the bunk. He sat on the edge, resting his hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry," Loki apologized, a heavy silence falling between them as Verda continued to lie in the same position, staring at the white wall, "Please...say something."
"I have nothing to say. May I go now?" Verda asked.
"Yes...of course," Loki said standing.
Verda rose from the bunk and walked around it past Loki, her countenance one of capitulation. She stepped out of the cell and turned to her left in the direction of the stairs that led to the dungeon's exit.
"Volstagg said you would never forgive me," Loki said, staring down at his feet, appearing as downcast as a child who had just broken their favorite toy.
Verda came to a halt, bowing her head.
"There is nothing to forgive. You are the King of Asgard. We are not equals. I must obey your command. The day of Thor's funeral...I spent the day in the forest where we had first met. I wished to be alone, not only to mourn him but also that you would be king, that after you would take the throne nothing could or would ever again be as it was."
"When you were dying...I found myself contemplating the same dark thoughts as I had in my visions," Loki turned Verda to face him, "I don't want to be that man."
"Regardless of my fate, who you are, who you become is your choice."
"My King," Heimdall said, Loki looking past Verda, Verda turning as Asgard's gatekeeper approached them, "I have received a message from your mortal ally, Coulson."
****************************
In a conference room in the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, Loki, Verda, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton along with Hank Pym sat on one side of a long table. Fury stood on the other, Coulson nearby, what appeared to be a briefcase in his hand.
"We'll play the getting to know each other game later. I've brought you all together because we need your help. I don't mean S.H.I.E.L.D...I mean us, all of us...Earth...Asgard, the others you've told me about," Fury said, looking to Loki and Verda, "You came here looking for the people that murdered your brother. It's now a whole lot bigger than that."
Coulson approached Fury, handing him the case, Fury placing it flat on the table.
"Some time ago I had an idea...to put together a team of people with extraordinary abilities to protect this planet from extraordinary dangers. During World War II, Hydra got their hands on something, an object of phenomenal and apparently limitless power. Rogers knows what I'm talking about, the rest of you will soon. This thing's the real deal, a clean, limitless source of energy. If we could figure out how to harness it, we could say goodbye to fossil fuels and nuclear power and all the problems that come with them for good. However, there's two sides to the coin. Energy can be used not only to create but also to destroy," Fury said, opening the case, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the Tesseract."
Loki stared at the glowing blue cube, grappling with himself to resist taking possession and fleeing with it.
"I would have…" Fury removed the Tesseract from the case, turning to face the far side of the room as he hurled it against the wall, the cube shattering, the fragments littering the floor, "The real Tesseract was stolen right under our nose. Your job, Banner's job actually, is to find it. Once he does, the rest of you will go in to reclaim it. Any questions?"