The dust storm swirled violently around as if it was a physical personification of Sigyn's grief and rage. She kept her face pressed against Loki's chest with her eyes and mouth closed as not to ingest any of the dust or the ashen soil that was kicked up by the winds in the process. The spiraling power of the winds felt like a minor tornado but it was nothing Sigyn couldn't handle. Eventually, though, the storm passed over them and moved on toward the cliffside in the direction where Thor and Jane gone. As the tears she had been crying began to dry for the time being, she finally sat up and began to look around at the barren landscape of the valley surrounding her. Not too far away she could see the bodies of the Dark Elves she and Loki had killed, which were now covered in some of the ash and dust left behind by the storm.

"I don't think I've ever been so alone," she muttered to herself. Her eyes kept panning up toward the black hole in the sky in place of a sun and then toward the cliffside. There was no sign of Thor or Jane. The Dark Elves were gone. There wasn't even as much as a bird in the sky. This world seemed to void of any life except her own. Sigyn chuckled. "I don't feel alone." She sighed, casting her gaze toward Loki's hand she was still holding. "I don't know what I feel. I don't know what do now. Should I stay here and will myself to die? Should I follow Juliet's path and stab myself in the heart and join you? Would I meet you in Valhalla? Are we even worthy of it?" A gust of wind blew by, rustling her hair into her face. With her free hand, she pulled the strands away and just stared off into the distance in somewhat of a daze. "Should I go? Should I bring you back to Asgard or build your funeral pyre here? Or would you want to be buried. Our son was buried." An idea popped into her head. "I wonder if I can take you to Earth. I can bring you to where I buried our son under all those rocks and make a place for you there beside him." She nodded. "Yes. I think you'd like that option best. And then I can just find someone, anyone…an Avenger. I'll convince them to kill me. Natasha would do it without batting an eye and without needing to be asked twice. Maybe Barton."

"Have you always talked to yourself so much?"

Sigyn whipped her head down to look at Loki. His eyes were closed, his skin still pale and ashen. For a moment she figured she'd imagined hearing his voice; that her grief was making her go a bit crazy. But then she saw it — the slightest rise and fall of his chest signifying breath in his body, and then the movement of his eyelids as he slowly opened his eyes to her.

Off her look of complete dismay and confusion, Loki smiled a small smile. "Hello, love."

Sigyn's eyes went wide and she was suddenly overcome with anger as she removed her hand from his and then slapped him across the face with it. "You asshole!" she shouted.

Loki winced and then chuckled as he began to sit up. Using his elbows, propped himself up as the ashen markings covering his skin faded away and the pale white skin tone became flush with his normal fair skin tone. "I'm so sorry I had to do that to you. It was a necessary evil."

"It was evil alright," she snapped. "How could you do that to me? Me! Of all people!"

"I needed you to believe it in order to sell it."

"So, you didn't think I could pretend you were dead? You wanted me to actually suffer that shock?"

"Did Thor believe it?"

"You faking your death or my honest reaction to you faking your death?" she asked with a scowl.

Loki shrug. "Both, I suppose."

"Of course he believed it. We both did."

Narrowing his gaze, Loki pushed off his elbows and sat up straight. "You didn't sound as broken up over it as I thought you'd be. Thor was a blubbering baby compared you do." Loki frowned. "I admit, I'm a bit disappointed."

Sigyn shrugged this time. "It didn't feel real. I mean, I believed you to be dead. I truly did. I was grieving you. I was cursing fate for letting this happen. I was crying over you. But something deep down didn't feel right. I always thought that when one of us died, the one who survived would know. We would feel this sudden emptiness, like our souls were being ripped in half. In our vows…we…we bonded our lives and our souls together. We promised ourselves to each other until our deaths and until the end of time. So if you died, I should've felt your soul leave me. I should've felt alone. I guess I've never truly been alone. Even in my exile, I could feel you. Literal worlds away and I could feel you. I mean, I could feel something had happened to you around the time you fell into that abyss. I didn't know what had happened. I just knew it was something terrible. It was a feeling of dread that washed over me and my heart ached. I could hear you screaming in my mind in fear and despair and then there was nothing I could do. When you appeared to me weeks later, only then I knew for sure you were okay. I could still feel you were alive somewhere, but the feeling was weaker than normal."

"Thanos. Where I was, with him. It was an unusual place. I was…lost. But my love for you and desire to survive kept me going until I could build my strength back up and visit you, even if it was only a projection."

"It was better than nothing."

Sigyn's anger over his deception was quickly fading. She took his hand back into hers and looked him in the eye. They both leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together, just sitting like that, quietly, for a few moments.

"That is why I did this," Loki soon said, leaning back from her. "I've been working on so many different plans on getting free and what I would do to stay free once I was out of the dungeons. All while I was imprisoned, with nothing to do these last couple of years, without anyone to talk to except the infrequent projections from my mother, and then from you more recently, I plotted. Every variation of every plan I mapped out in my mind, but I could not have planned that prison break, the attack on the city and my mother's death. I could not have planned on Thor coming to break me out. I had to work excruciatingly quick to cut and sew together pieces of different plots to make this one. Right up until I grabbed that sword to stab that monster, I was amending my plots. Every move I made had to be precise. If I made even the smallest of mistakes none of this would've gone right for me." Looking at her and holding her gaze, he added, "For us."

"And what exactly do you have planned for us?"

Loki grinned. "Well, it's not exactly the throne I promised you, and we won't be able to be together in public as husband in wife…but I know it will work…"

Sigyn raised an eyebrow. "Should we be discussing this? Heimdall sees all."

"He may have the staggeringly remarkable gift of sight but he's not completely omniscient. After all, he couldn't see the Frost Giants that I let into Asgard a few years ago. If he was looking here, then he saw me die and that's where my illusion continues. If he's looking for me, then the illusion I've created here will show him I am dead and gone and that's all. I've made a blindspot for him. Other than my supposed dead body, there is nothing and no one else he can see leaving or arriving this world. And as soon as we leave, the body he sees belonging to me will turn to dust." Loki shook his head. "No. If he's looking for anything, he's keeping his eye out for Thor to make sure he's safe. I'm dead now, so Heimdall has no need to look for or see me. He has his blind spots and my skill at illusions has only increased tenfold over the centuries. So trust me when I say he's not seeing anything of importance here today," Loki assured with a knowing grin. "I am that good."

Sigyn smirked and shook her head. "You are something else," she remarked with a touch of pride in her voice. She just stared at him, watching the way he continued to smirk, while letting his eyes drift down to her lips. Then, without warning, Sigyn leaned back a tad and punched him in the nose, causing his head to jerk back and his eyes to water. "Don't you ever leave me out of your plans like that again," she warned.

Loki tipped his head back, holding his nostrils closed with his thumb and index finger as blood began to trickle out. "Yep," he mumbled sheepishly, staring up at her as he watched her stand and brush off the skirt of her dress. "I deserved that."

Casting a look around them, Sigyn took in the barren landscape and then up toward the top of the cliffside where they had started the charade for Malekith earlier. What was left of the dust storm had died down and moved on. Only the wind remained and it was mild at that.

"I'm going to check something," she remarked.

Before Loki could reply, she disappeared. "I'll just stay right here, shall I?" he quipped to himself.

Unpinching his nose, Loki looked at his fingers and wiped what little bid of blood off on his pants and then wiped under his nose with his sleeve. The bleeding had already stopped. A simple punch to the nose wasn't much of a wound for someone like him or any other Asgardian—or Jotun, to be specific in regard to him. Letting his eyes wander, he tried to see if he could locate Sigyn anywhere without using his magic to project himself to her. That, in itself, made him both proud and jealous at the same time. As skilled as he was in magic and trickery, even he couldn't teleport. Actually, he didn't know of anyone, besides Sigyn, that could. He wished he could. It would've saved so much time over the years.

For as much as he could do with his sorcery or illusions, teleporting was something he was never able to achieve. Projections were as far as he could manage.

"Thor and Jane are gone, but they didn't take the skiff," Sigyn announced the moment she reappeared. Unlike most, Loki wasn't startled by her reappearance from out of nowhere. "I don't know how you plan for us to get off this rock, though."

Loki pulled himself up and stood there beside his wife. "How do you think I found the portals leading in and out of Asgard?" Taking her hand in his, he rubbed his thumb over her knuckles as if to make a point. "I could feel them. With the Convergence going on, it will only make it that much easier to sense a portal back."

"Alright, then," she nodded. Interlocking her fingers with his, she disappeared them both, only to reappear atop the cliff, several yards from the skiff which was already powered up, obviously by her.

Despite not being fazed by her coming and going in such a way, this had been Loki's first time teleporting, and to say he handled it better than Thor on his first time would be a lie. Loki hunched forward for a moment, his hands on his thighs and he waited for his stomach to stop somersaulting. "Well, that was a new sensation I wasn't prepared for," he mused; wondering if he was about to fight back some vomit.

Sigyn chuckled. "You get used to it real quick." She then looked him up and down. "Well, you can't go back looking as you are: as yourself."

"Oh, I know." With a smarmy smile, standing up straight. With a lick of his lip he began to project an illusion over himself, ending up looking like that of a random Einherjar soldier. With his right arm outstretched slightly, he finished the look by conjuring a generic Einherjar spear. "There. How do I look?"

"Were I unwed and you not already my husband, I would take you in a very unladylike fashion."

"Well, to everyone else, you are very much widowed now, so if this is a look you want me to keep…"

Sigyn swatted playfully at him. "Oh, shut up," she chided, and then gestured toward the skiff. "Let's get out of here already. It's depressing."

"Yes, of course, princess. Right away," he remarked, bowing to her as if he really were the Einherjar soldier he was pretending to be. Even his voice changed which was seemed noticeably strange for her to hear. "On our way home I'll give you the initial basics on my plan so you don't castrate me. How's that sound?"

"I want full details."

"I would give you full details if I had more time. Right now, it's the basics," he replied as they began to walk side by side together toward the skiff. Loki held out his hand to help her up into the vehicle. "I promise."

With a sigh, she accepted his hand and hopped up. "Fine. But don't, for one minute, think I won't hit you again, and this time much harder."

"Fair enough." After he climbed up after her, he stepped over to the navigational lever and looked over at her. "Alright. Here goes nothing," he added with a grinned.

In no time at all, Loki find the portal to take them back to Asgard, likely due to the Convergence as he suspected. However, when they returned, they didn't return through the same location they'd left from. This time they passed through a portal that came out of a cave amidst the thick of a forest. In the process, due to the speed the skiff was traveling at, the skiff scraped several trees, one or two smaller ones falling before Loki managed to get the skiff to maneuver more easily; weaving around the remainder of trees and slowing down their speed. Eventually they forest gave way to smaller homesteads surrounding a considerably sized body of water, to which they both recognized as being the same body of water they had traveled along just before approaching the mountain where the other portal they'd left Asgard through was located.

As the glittering city came closer, both grew solemn as part of the act and as part of their respective concentration in regard to the plan Loki had given Sigyn the cliff notes version to before their reappearance. Loki kept his eyes trained forward for the most part; occasionally looking down toward the front of the skiff where Sigyn was hunched over the edge, staring down at the water below them, with the most forlorn of gazes.

Loki couldn't help but smirk for a moment. His pride over how well Sigyn could pretend to still be grieving was nothing short of astonishing. He also could help but be amazed by a lot of the damage that Asgard had undertaken by the Dark Elves.

Soon enough, they skiff came near the entrance to the palace and Loki brought the vehicle to a stop. Other Einherjar approached them; having been guarding the outer entrance, which had been damaged by Thor flying the Dark Elves' ship through the wall while they'd been escaping. Sigyn sat up rather languidly and stared blankly back at the Einherjar. She turned her head slightly in Loki's direction but didn't look at him.

"I must have an audience with the All-father right away," Loki, as the Einherjar soldier, declared. "I've returned from the Dark World with news only for him, and found his niece in the process." He climbed down out of the skiff first and then held his hand out to Sigyn. "Place her hands in irons. Unless our King says otherwise, she is under arrest for grounds of treason."

"Odin's inside, at his throne, last we saw," one of the soldiers remarked.

Once Sigyn stepped down out of the skiff, another of the soldiers brought forth a pair of iron handcuffs and placed them around her wrists. The entire time, she maintained a distant look upon her face. She acted as though she was barely aware of what was going on so that the ruse of her grief seemed genuine.

"Thank you, boys," Loki as the soldier nodded. The others parted for Sigyn and him, one even pulling over the doors for them and shutting them afterward.

Slowly, they walked forward toward and down a couple of steps, with Loki's left hand gripping Sigyn's right arm. His right hand held on tightly to his spear. The further they got into the palace, the more rubble they had to step around, though it was obvious some minor cleaning up had taken place since before they'd initially escaped. At the forefront of the long Hall, which became the Throne Room, there stood Odin with his back to them as he faced his broken throne while light shined down on him.

It was all rather picturesque, really.

A broken king with his broken throne. It should be painted.

Several feet from the base of the stairs that lead up to the throne, Loki and Sigyn stopped. He looked forward and she kept her eyes cast down with her shoulders slouched.

"Forgive me, my liege," he greeted. "I've returned from the Dark World with news."

Odin barely gave a glance over his left shoulder. Whether or not he gave an indication of noticing Sigyn there remained unseen. "Thor?" he questioned.

"There was no sign of Thor, or the weapon, but I found your niece, the princess Sigyn and brought her back," Loki replied with a slight shake of his head. "But…"

"What?" Odin turned. This time his gaze fell upon the dejected sight of his niece, who had mustered fresh tears which were now falling freely down her face as if they couldn't escape her eyes fast enough. The old king seemed to falter briefly in his stance, as if he already knew what was about to be said.

"We found a body," Loki replied, taking a step forward.

"Loki," Odin deduced.

As the muttering of his name Sigyn's legs gave out from underneath her but Loki was quick to turn and keep her standing; offering as much support as a guard would be allowed for someone who was both of the royal family and currently a potential prisoner.

"Yes," Loki confirmed. "I checked the body. There was a single wound to his chest." He gestured to Sigyn. "She wouldn't tell me any details of what happened when I found her."

"I'm sorry," Sigyn blurted; her tears slipping into her mouth.

Odin breathed in a steadying bit of air as he turned more fully and took one step down. "Why?"

"If we hadn't gone. If I'd chosen differently and convinced Thor to stay, we wouldn't have done what we did. We wouldn't have…" she trailed as a sob became stuck in her throat. While she began to break down, Loki had to remain steadfast and unbothered. "Loki would still be alive. My husband would still be alive. I'm so sorry, uncle."

The moment she looked from the ground and up at Odin is when he seemed to become visibly weakened. The sight her of devastated and blubbering over the loss of one son while the other was unaccounted for, paired with the recent loss of Frigga and the sacking of Asgard, was enough to shake the old king to his core.

Odin gave a limp waving gesture toward the guard before him. "Remove the bindings from her hands. There will be no punishment for any crimes she may have committed. What she has suffered today is worth than any punishment I could hand out."

With an obedient bow of his head, Loki turned his back to Odin so that he could face Sigyn and take the iron handcuffs from her wrists. You are doing remarkably, my love, he thought to her.

I know, she answered him a little on the smug side.

If they were alone, he would've smiled or chuckled in response. When he turned back to face Odin, hooking the cuffs onto the belt at his side and then stood there, waiting for his orders or to be dismissed. Sigyn began to rub her wrists and then stepped forward to the base of the steps, all the while Loki watched after her.

"I don't know what to do now," Sigyn commented, flashing sad doe eyes at her uncle as tears still fell here and there. "I feel so lost. Being separated from Loki for centuries but knowing he was at least here and alive was one thing, but this…it's death. He's gone forever from me. From us." Then, to drive it home, she tried wiping her tears away and added, "We have something in common now. We've both suffered the loss of our spouse and a child. We'll need each other to lean on, now more than ever."

With that, Odin mistook a step and swayed. Sigyn hurried up to him almost instantly; taking hold of both his arms.

"Is he really gone?" he asked quietly, looking her in the eye. No tears of his fell, but he did seem honestly shaken and aggrieved.

Sigyn nodded sadly. "Yes."

"How…how did it happen?"

"The Aether couldn't be destroyed and Malekith stole away with it; leaving behind several of his soldiers and that beast that killed the queen. It was that beast in question who was left after we defeated the others. He was beating Thor so badly, so Loki went after him and ran him through with a sword, but the beast grabbed Loki…he…" Sigyn removed one of her hands from Odin's arms and placed it to her mouth to contain a fake sob escaped a little too late for her to cover up. "He grabbed Loki and…and…and he impaled Loki with him. Loki—he got the last laugh. He activated this grenade that caused the beast to implode and be killed. Thor and I gathered around Loki…it was…we were so…"

"Did he suffer long?" Odin inquired, his lone eye drifting toward the ground at the base of the steps up to the throne.

"No," Sigyn assured with a shake of her head. "It happened all too quickly, but a quick death is a good death."

Odin gave a small nod and then his feet seemed to almost give out under him much as Sigyn had forced on herself while playing the part of the grieving widow.

"You're tired, uncle. I know you haven't rested since before the attack. After everything that's happened, you need to. We cannot be strong as a realm or as a united people if our king isn't. Come." Turning her head toward Loki, who was still standing there disguised as the Einherjar soldier, she beckoned him forward. "Help me escort the King to his chambers."

"No, I am fine," Odin insisted, so Loki stopped and went no further.

"Frigga is not here to reprimand you as your wife, so I shall do it as your daughter," she commented firmly, reminding him of their conversation two evenings before after the funeral when he acknowledged, for the first time, that she was not only his niece but his daughter by marriage. She was also the only female member of their family and she knew that he knew that would mean her stepping into some of the roles Frigga once took part in as queen. "I know you're the All-father, my king, and we all are to do as you command, but right now I need you to do as I command. If and when the Dark Elves return, we will need you in top form." After a moment, she added, "You know I am right."

Odin smirked, albeit sadly. "Very well." He looked down with a sigh and then back up at Sigyn's face. "I will take a few hours to gather myself."

"If a few hours is all you think you need then that is better than nothing."

"Ah…yes…" he nodded lamely and then stood up a bit more straighter as he began walking down the remainder of the steps with Sigyn at his side.

Sigyn linked her arm through his and then cast a look over at Loki. "Will you escort us, sir?"

"Yes, of course, milady," Loki replied with a bow of his head.

As he followed, he did so at a few paces behind Odin and Sigyn, and even though he did it silently, that didn't mean he wasn't communicating.

As soon as we get him into his chambers… he spoke to her in her mind.

I know, I know, she replied. I remember what happens next.

The entire jaunt toward the private wing of the palace where all their royal bedchambers were was painstakingly languorous and quiet. Neither Odin nor Sigyn bothered with small talk; each probably thinking the other was lost in thought about everything that had happened and the apparent death of Loki that there were no words that seemed to matter at the moment. Once they approached the large, stately double doors to Odin's chambers, Loki stepped round and pushed them open for them both, still not faltering in his disguise.

We could win an Academy Award, Sigyn quipped, unintentionally.

What's that? Loki wondered.

Nothing. Never mind.

Inside the spacious antechamber, Sigyn walked with Odin over to a chaise lounge. As he sat down, he looked past her to where he saw the guard hovering just inside the doors. He then looked upward at his niece and found her face rather unreadable.

"Something is wrong."

"What do you mean, uncle?" Sigyn queried.

"I do not know exactly. Something feels…off."

With a sigh and a shrug, Sigyn looked over her shoulders at Loki. Do it now.

Without hesitation, Loki shut both doors with him inside and, with his back turned, gave a small wave of his hand which cast a green rippling effect to emanate from his hands and spread over the entirety of the room, surrounding the three of them.

"What—?" Odin began to stand up, but Sigyn pushed him down slightly as she made a shushing sound. "What is going on?"

"I'd say I'm sorry about this, but I'm not really," Loki quipped, letting his disguise fall away to reveal his true self. Before Odin could push Sigyn away and stand up to confront his lying son who was supposed to be dead, Loki gave a flick of his wrist and Odin was left immobile. He couldn't move or speak. With each step closer he took, Loki began to make intricate moves with his hands and fingers, building up a magical energy which he kept inflicting upon Odin. "Go to sleep," he muttered, and with great ease, Odin's eye drifted shut and he slumped over onto the chaise lounge.

Sigyn looked from her unconscious uncle to the very welcomed sight of her husband. "We only have a few hours before someone gets suspicious. We have to do this now."

"And you said you know of the perfect place for him?" Loki questioned, stepping up to his father and lifting him up. He struggled only slightly; Odin being a much bulkier man than Loki, and added to that the weight an unconscious form produced.

"Yes," Sigyn nodded. "No one will think to look for him there, especially if you can really bind his powers."

"I can," he assured.

"Well, then, have at it in case he wakes up en route."

Sigyn watched as Loki sat Odin back down and placed his hand upon his father's forehead. He closed his eyes and concentrated. The faintest ripple of air seemed to come from Odin's head and move up Loki's arm, with Loki wincing a little in the process. After a few moments, he removed his hand and took a step back.

"It's done," he remarked. "When my father wakes up, he won't remember who he is and he won't be able to access the Odinforce."

Sigyn nodded. "Alright, then. It's now or never."

Loki once more stepped up and lifted Odin back into his arms. Sigyn moved up beside them both, placing her hands on both of them. With a look passing between husband and wife, Sigyn teleported them both out of Odin's chambers, all the while Loki maintained an illusion of invisibility over all three of them while also leaving behind the spell on the chambers that Odin was still there, and resting, in case anyone tried to get in.

Moments later, they appeared at a location outside the city, in the hills, that Loki had told Sigyn about during their journey back to Asgard earlier while searching for the correct portal on Svartalfheim. This specific location was possibly the most unassuming. It wasn't exactly dark out by any means, so it was still easy enough to see that there was nothing but trees around them. However, there was a small grouping of trees before them that were quite large and oddly curving toward one another.

Loki shifted Odin in his arms and let out a sigh. "I didn't take into account how heavy he would be to carry."

"Do your powers not extend to making something levitate?"

Loki frowned. "I'm not a witch."

Sigyn simply smirked and maintained her grip on both of them as they began to walk forward toward the space between the trees. The nearer they got, the more they began to full a sort of gravitational pull. As soon as they stepped through the space, they were whipped forward and disappeared with a pop of light. To the casual observer it would've looked as if the three of them simply disappeared as normally as Sigyn could when she teleported. But, for them, they were being hurtled forward much the same as the other portals had done. Only this time they were on foot.

Traveling through this portal took less than a minute and when they came out the other side, they were thrust forward onto some concrete ground, with Odin's unconscious form landing on top of Loki. Sigyn skidded on her feet but managed to stay upright as she lifted her head and looked around her.

The noise is what she noticed first, and she felt the oddest pang of familiarity. It was a feeling of home that she didn't want to admit to Loki for feeling.

It was New York City.

There was the blaring of traffic, the muted thumping of someone's car stereo and a couple of people arguing nearby. There was also the smell of some wonderful food wafting in the air but it was mixed with the horrible scent of possibly literal piss and shit.

Though it was mid-afternoon in New York, Sigyn noted they were in a considerably dark alley, and the only entrance into it from the street was through a gated fence which appeared to be locked. That was perfect since the way they arrived from out of literal nowhere would've raised too many questions and red flags for any passersby. After she assisted Loki in lifting Odin up, she held up a finger to him so that he would wait right there. She then teleported herself to the top of one of the buildings they were standing between; a few pigeons scattering in fright at her sudden appearance. Walking over to the edge of the rooftop, she looked down at the street below and took in the sight. She inhaled the air deeply and smiled a little to herself before focusing on everything below; namely the other buildings to determine exactly where in the city they were. After a few moments of consideration, she nodded to herself and teleported back down to the alley.

"Okay, I know whereabouts we are. We have several more city blocks to go, though."

"Where are we?"

"New York. Chinatown, specifically."

Loki winced. "Well, hopefully no one recognizes us."

Sigyn just stared back at him as if he were an idiot child. "Disguise us."

He nodded, shaking his lapse in thought away. "Right. Sorry. A lot going on."

With a small flick of his fingers, their Asgardian clothes gave way to typical Midgardian attire; he in a svelte black suit and she in a similar pant suit with the only obvious difference being that her blouse was green in color. They're physical appearances then shifted. Loki took on the appearance of the Einherjar soldier he'd disguised himself as earlier, who had blonde hair, but just now dressed as a regular human. For Sigyn, she was also given blonde hair, as well as brown eyes and a more slender and freckled face.

"How do I look?" she asked not able to see herself.

"Unremarkable. The exact opposite of your regular self."

Sigyn pursed her lips. "Ooh, flattery will get you everywhere, darling."

With a chuckle, Loki let out a sigh and glanced down at Odin. "Okay, this is just exasperating." With another flick of his wrist, he conjured a wheelchair and then sank Odin into it. "Ugh," he groaned without that added weight bogging him down. "Much better."

"You need to give him a different look."

"Do you suggest just the clothes or a full makeover?"

Placing her hands on her hips, Sigyn shrugged. "No one on Earth knows what he looks like. Just alter his clothes. And the eyepatch. No old human man is going to be wandering around with strapless gold patch over his eye like Odin," she remarked. "Think generic."

Staring at his father, Loki watched as Odin's Asgardian attire and armor dissipated and became a plain, loose-fit dress shirt and comfortable looking slacks, paired with a light jacket and a pair of loafers on his feet. The eyepatch was made of leather and still had somewhat of a gold hue to it, but this time there was a simple leather strap to it. It was definitely more generic.

"It's strange. He looks so much older now. It's amazing how imposing a person can look with a breastplate, pauldrons and vambraces," Loki commented. Turning to gaze upon the temporary façade that was his currently his wife. "So, where do we go?"

"Just follow me."

Within the hour, they had taken a rather leisurely stroll, which consisted of one detour wherein Sigyn ducked into a restaurant under the guise of using the restaurant. In truth she was doing that so she wouldn't be spotted disappearing into thin air on the open sidewalk when she teleported inside of the armored Brinks truck parked across the street and stole two bags of money. With the bags in hand, she teleported back into the bathroom stall and transferred the money into a large purse she'd casually swiped from a pedestrian she and Loki had passed. The money totaled a little over four hundred thousand dollars which was more than enough for what they'd need it for. Shoving the brinks bags into the garbage receptacle in the bathroom, Sigyn walked out of the bathroom and out of the restaurant to once again join Loki and Odin.

"He's waking up," Loki remarked nervously.

Sigyn tilted her head and looked her uncle over. "He doesn't seem very aware of anything yet. That's a good sign." Smiling up at Loki, she shifted the over-sized handbag up her arm. "We'll be fine."

After walking only another two blocks, they came to stop outside a seven story building that had seen better days, but seemed decent enough. Pushing Odin in the wheelchair inside of the building, the approached a woman seated behind a front desk who greeted them with a smile.

"Hello, welcome to Shady Acres Care Home. What can I assist you with today?"

"Who's in charge here?" Loki asked.

"That would be our Admissions Director, Laura Burridge."

"Is she here right now?"

"She's in her office." Taking note of how well-dressed and important the couple in front of her looked, the woman at the front desk, with the name tag stating she was Katie, smiled shyly. "Would you like me to see if she's available to meet with you?"

"That would be much appreciated."

As they stood there waiting, Loki and Sigyn watched as Katie called Laura Burridge from her desk phone. They didn't pay much attention to what shy Katie was saying as they looked at each other and then down at Odin who was now fully awake but a bit groggy as if he were drugged up on heavy painkillers.

This better go quickly, Loki thought with a sigh.

Patience, my love.

"She's happy to meet with you," Katie interrupted their telepathic conversation. They looked back at her and she smiled. "Her office is around that corner. Second door on the left."

Loki and Sigyn followed where Katie had pointed and then nodded graciously at her.

"Thank you," Sigyn muttered.

As they began to walk away, wheeling Odin with them as they went, Loki huffed. So many tireless steps just to get rid of him.

Well, we have to do this right. We can't do it half-assed.

Loki sighed. I know, I know.

As they approached the correct door, Sigyn knocked three times.

"Come on in," a woman's voice called from inside.

Sigyn pushed open the door and let Loki and Odin in first and then stepped inside after them. Once all three were inside the rather small office, she closed the door behind them and took the two seats offered to them; Odin sandwiched between them in the wheelchair.

"So, I'm Laura Burridge, Admissions Director here at Shady Acres. What exactly is it I can do for you three?" the woman in her mid to late forties asked.

Loki looked to Sigyn, deferring to her, as she would know best how to interact with a human in this particular situation given her centuries of dealing with humans.

"My father-in-law suffers from Alzheimer's and we need a place for him. Long-term. And we need placement for him now."

Laura chuckled slightly. "Well, I believe there's a waitlist that—" she began to say, but was cut off by Sigyn dropping the large handbag down on the desk between them.

"There's over four hundred grand in that bag. We can get you more if need be, but let's be honest: this place isn't exactly the Ritz-Carlton or the Plaza, darling." She pointed to her right, the woman's left. "When we came in, I noticed you have two elevators in an elevator bay and one of them has an 'Out of Order' sign that looks as if it's been there at least a year or two. This place can get a lot of shit fixed with the money my husband and I can provide you so long as you get the paperwork moving."

I can spell her and make this go faster, Loki suggested to Sigyn.

She casted the briefest of knowing glances at him. Trust me. I've got this.

"I also saw Thanksgiving decorations. The holidays are coming up. Perhaps you'd like to take about fifty thousand for yourself. Take yourself on a much needed vacation," Sigyn tempted further. She narrowed her gaze, reading the other woman to the best of her ability after about eight hundred fifty years of getting to know humans. "I'm sure you'd love a break from this place. I mean, your office doesn't even have a window. Just four small walls and a fluorescent light overhead."

Laura bit her lips firmly together and tapped her fingers anxiously along the desk. Her eyes kept wandering to the bag. "Make it seventy-five thousand," she suddenly bartered.

Sigyn grinned like the Cheshire cat and extended her hand across the desk, over the bag. "Then we have a deal?"

Loki bowed his head a little bit and smirked as he watched the woman shake his wife's hand.

"We do," Laura replied. With little decorum, she reached for the bag and struggled slightly to pull it forward and drop it into her lap. Unzipping the bag, she looked inside and appeared as if she'd seen a ghost. "Holy shit, you weren't kidding." Zipping the bag back up, she looked between Loki and Sigyn and then dropped the bag heavily down onto the ground beside her. "Okay, then. Let's get things rolling."

"Wonderful," Loki professed.

Laura turned toward her desktop computer and clicked here and tapped away there. A blank form appeared on the screen and she turned back toward the awaiting couple and the old man between them. "First thing's first: what's the patient's name?"

"Borson," Loki replied. "Od—"

"John Borson," Sigyn added quickly, shooting Loki a careful look.

"Okay. Borson." Laura began to tap away on the keyboard. "And how do you spell that?"

Inside Odin's private chambers, a few hours later, Loki and Sigyn appeared with smiles of success upon their faces. They were once again dressed in their normal Asgardian attire and looked as they normally did, but Loki only remained as such because of the barrier of privacy he had cast upon the chambers' interior hours before. They sank down, side by side, onto the chaise lounge they'd had Odin leaning on and Sigyn dipped her head down onto Loki's shoulder.

"It feels a little weird having left him like that, and yet so wonderfully liberating, don't you agree."

"I thoroughly do," Loki concurred. Looking around the chambers, which would now have to become his as part of the ruse that they'd have to go forward with, he let out a long, steadying sigh. "There is so much I will have to do to make this work. The privacy spell in here will have to remain at all times, and I'll place one within your chambers so that I can visit you and not have to keep up appearances in case Heimdall is watching."

"But you will have me at your side for support."

"And I will need it." After a moment, he smiled. "I glad you convinced me to linger a little longer in New York and try some of the food. You were right about the cheeseburgers."

"I told you," she chuckled, sitting back up straight. "Oh, I missed them. I didn't realize just how much I actually missed about Earth."

"Well, it's understandable. Even though you were born and raised here on Asgard, Earth was your home much longer."

"Perhaps we can sneak away from time to time," She suggested. "I can show you places I enjoyed. Places that were important to me…"

Loki turned and watched how her face grew darker and a little sadder. "What is it?"

"I was thinking that I would be able to show where I buried our son. I can show you where he died; the ruins of the castle that once stood where he and I lived at the time. I can show you where I carried him to and laid him to rest under a pile of stones. The last time I was there, about a century ago, that rock pile still stood, albeit considerably eroded and covered with grass and moss."

"I would like that," he insisted, slipping her hand into his and squeezing it. "In fact, if I did die, I would greatly like to be buried beside him."

Sigyn looked up at Loki and smiled; a single tear slipping from the corner of her eye that she wiped quickly away. "You heard that part?" she asked, referencing her funeral ideas she'd spoken aloud when she thought he was dead.

"Well, I wasn't actually dead, so yes, I heard everything," he teased.

"Okay, then. If you die, I'll bury you there, and if I die, I want to be buried there, too. We'll be there as a family."

"But what if you were to die before you showed me where it was?"

"You're Loki. I'm sure you have your ways."

He smirked and thought on it for a moment. "Actually, there is a way I can see it without going there just yet." He shifted and turned to face her fully, taking both of her hands in hers, not just the one. "I can see everything. I haven't done it often enough, but I can certainly try."

Sigyn knitted her brow together in confusion. "Try what?"

"This might, uh, feel very strange and intrusive. Bear with me."

Loki slipped his hands from hers and then placed them on either side of her head, his thumbs brushing briefly near her eyebrows. Sigyn watched as he closed his eyes and concentrated on whatever he was doing with a smirk dangling off her lips until she began to see little flashes of her memories in her mind, like snapshots of camera going off. After a moment it felt like sorting through microfiche news articles at a library at breakneck speed, starting with her more recent memories and going backward in time. All through this experience, she realized he was seeing her memories, too, but from her perspective.

He saw her recently fighting on Vanaheim.

He saw teleport out of Stark Tower to protect a family trapped in a vehicle from an advancing Chitauri that attempted to turn on her. "Don't you dare aim that at me," Sigyn spat. "I am Sigyn, wife of Loki, your commander, and you will stand down."

He saw her sitting proudly watching Mary, the daughter she had adopted in the 1950s, walk across the stage to accept her high school diploma.

He saw her hanging out at a bar with Peggy Carter as Steve Rogers and his friend Bucky came in to join them.

He saw her living in a cave, dirty with a rat's nest for hair, roasting a Siberian tiger she had killed for food and was prepping the skinned fur to be a blanket of sorts.

He saw her walking into her father's bedroom and finding him dead, followed by her reactions to his death which involved her tossing the maid out the window to her death below.

He saw her very brief sexual encounter with British soldier John André and how she cast an illusion to make him look like Loki.

He saw her laughing with Mary Tudor over a meal while the woman was still just a twenty-something princess and not yet the queen who would later be known as Bloody Mary.

He saw her laying in the grass in the Scottish countryside at night, staring sadly up at the stars.

The visions of her memories began to slow down as they began to reach that of their son. With Loki finding exactly what he had been searching for.

He saw her standing over a pile of rocks with a sword sticking out of it. Her face was dirty and stained with dried tears and there was dried blood on her hands and on her dress.

He saw her throwing a head onto a table and frightening a father, a mother and their young son while they ate breakfast.

He saw her decapitating a young man with rage in her eyes.

He saw her holding a different young man who laid there upon her lap, dying from a gaping wound in his chest.

He saw her watching as the dying young man was stabbed through the heart from behind and being too late to prevent it.

He saw that dying young man as a boy in his teen years, sitting with Sigyn in the grass; the two of them drinking wine and watching the sunset as they talked. "Will I ever meet my father?" the boy asked.

He saw Sigyn standing in the same castle where she had tossed the decapitated head, but this time smiling brightly as she watched the teen boy, when he was not yet a teen, playing with a few children that appeared to be his age.

He watched her living in a seaside home in the south of France, watching that boy toddling around and getting into mischief as he grabbed for this thing and that.

He watched her cradling the boy, their son Narfi, as an infant, as she paced back and forth inside a small, drafty homestead in the Scottish Highlands.

He saw her in the throes of labor, gripping the sides of the bed and crying out in anguish.

He saw her sitting on a log outside the same house, caressing her very pregnant stomach.

And that's when Loki broke away.

That's when Loki removed his hands from Sigyn's head and opened his eyes.

When he looked back at her, he saw she was crying.

"I am so sorry," he apologized, pulling her into an embrace. "I didn't mean for you to relive all that pain."

"It's okay," she mumbled into his shoulder. "I wasn't reliving pain. Memories are one thing, but you let me relive good moments as if they were happening right before me all over again. I got to see our son again." Sigyn pulled back abruptly and placed her hands on his shoulders as she held his gaze. "That was our son. That was Narfi."

Bittersweet tears stung at his eyes as he smiled at her. "You were right. He was beautiful. He was amazing and you did an amazing job raising him. He truly grew into a remarkable young man. He was taken too soon, and that was hard to witness secondhand. But he lived. Even if a short while, he lived and he was remarkable. He was perfect."

Sigyn smiled back at him. "He really was."

Brushing some hair away from her eyes, he sighed and pulled her in to embrace her again, which led to him tipping his head down to seek her lips for a kiss.

"I love you," he breathed into her mouth.

Sigyn lifted her face and grinned up at him; wiping away the residue of her drying tears. "I love you, too."

The following evening, Thor returned.

Before that, Loki had shapeshifted into that of Odin and successfully cast a spell over Sigyn's private chambers. He made it so that Heimdall, specifically could not see into her chambers, the same as he'd done to Odin's chambers, unless Loki removed the spells himself. He then spent the better part of the day, playing the part of the All-father exceptionally well; doling out tasks for this soldier and that to get the reconstruction underway to fix all that was damaged in Asgard during the sacking by the Dark Elves.

With many soldiers present, Loki as Odin sat on the broken throne with Gungnir in his left hand as he gave his orders and also decreed a pardon on those that took part in freeing Loki from the dungeons and escaping to the Dark World against his orders. He expressed for those arrested for that treason—Sif, Fandral, Volstagg and Heimdall—to be released and allowed to be returned to their previous duties. He then announced that Sigyn, "his" niece, would be stepping up to fill the shoes of his dearly departed wife Frigga, as senior and only female member of the royal family; taking on any and all of Frigga's responsibilities. It was the closest Loki could do to give her a part of the throne under this ruse they'd both be living with for the foreseeable future.

By that evening, when Thor had returned home to Asgard, he was announced first and then let into the palace. Loki had already cast a spell over the throne room, just in case the illusion that he was Odin slipped while talking to anyone other than Sigyn. Currently still under the guise of being Odin, he watched Thor approaching. Slowly, Loki stood, switching Gungnir into his right hand. Sigyn, he knew, was standing off to the side and out of sight so that Thor could have, what he believed to be, a private conversation with the man he assumed was his father.

"Father," Thor greeted as he reached the base of the steps leading up to the throne, which had been the first thing to be fixed that very morning and returned to its previous splendor. He took a knee and could not seem to look his father in the eye.

"You once said there would never be a wiser King than me," Loki as Odin remarked with the same concise speech pattern as his father. "You were wrong. The alignment has brought all the realms together. Every one of them saw you offer your life to save them. What can Asgard offer its new King in return?"

"My life," Thor replied solemnly, finally looking up. He stood up then, rather resolute. "Father, I cannot be King of Asgard. I will protect Asgard and all the realms with my last and every breath, but I cannot do so from that chair. Loki, for all his grave imbalance, understood rule as I know I never will. The brutality, the sacrifice…it changes you." He paused, unaware of how please Loki as Odin was feeling with how this conversation was going.

If Thor had decided he would take the throne, Loki's fail safe plan was to continue to act as Odin long enough to bring him back to Asgard but spell him so that he remained in an Odinsleep and forgot that Loki was really alive. He would then sneak off and he would go with Sigyn; the two of them living on Earth with new guises. But, it seemed now that failsafe plan would not be needed and Loki was beyond ecstatic. He just couldn't allow himself to show it for the sake of not letting the ruse falter.

"I'd rather be a good man than a great King," Thor continued.

Loki considered those words. "Is this my son I hear, or the woman he loves?" He knew a little something about that, as it were.

"When you speak, do I never hear Mother's voice?" Thor countered with a smiled and watched as his father sighed and looked downward. "This is not for Jane, Father. She does not know what I came here to say," he insisted as Odin sank down onto his throne. "Now forbid me to see her or say she can rule at my side, it changes nothing."

"One son who wanted the throne too much, another who will not take it. Is this my legacy?"

"Loki died with honor. I shall try to live the same. Is that not legacy enough?"

Thor's words struck Loki, but he couldn't react to them as he would've liked. He merely nodded slightly.

Taking half a step back Thor lifted Mjolnir, turned it around and held the handle toward his father's direction; offering it up. Loki knew he was not worthy of the hammer and could not wield it. Any attempt to take it from Thor would immediately alert the God of Thunder that Odin was not Odin, for Odin could, in fact, wield Mjolnir, too.

Loki as Odin gave a slight wave of his hand. "It belongs to you," he spoke. "If you are worthy of it."

Thor lowered the hammer. "I shall try to be."

"I cannot give you my blessing, nor can I wish you good fortune."

"I know."

As Thor turned and began to leave, Loki as Odin called out, "If I were proud of the man my son had become, even that I could not say." He watched as Thor turned slightly to look back at him with a small, loving smile. "It would speak only from my heart. Go, my son."

"Thank you, father."

Turning yet again to leave, this time he did not stop.

"No. Thank you," Loki as Odin whispered to himself with devilish grin. He then turned his head toward the wings of the throne room, near a column Sigyn had been standing behind in wait. He gave her a slight nod of the head and he could sense a ripple of magic in the air that told him she had teleported away.

When Thor approached the entrance to the palace, he looked skyward and shifted his right hand's grip on Mjolnir. Before he could allow the hammer to propel him forward toward the Observatory, he heard a throat being clear almost directly behind him. He gave a look over his shoulder and then smiled again, only this time more bittersweet.

Sigyn stepped up to him, mirroring his smile and then reaching out and hugging him. "So you're off? Without saying goodbye?"

"Sorry," he replied sheepishly. "I honestly didn't know you were back." When they parted from their brief embrace he looked her over and noted she looked well, at least physically. Her eyes suggested she was a little broke inside and trying her best to appear strong. "How did you get back?"

"A soldier came to the Dark World on Odin's orders to look for us. He only found me."

Thor's gaze saddened a bit then. "What did you do after I left? Before the guard arrived. Is…is he still there?" he asked, not openly asking about Loki's body he'd left behind with her on Svartalfheim. "He turned to dust, like small beautiful lights, as the Einherjar and I left. Had that not happened I would've much preferred to carry him to Earth and bury him beside our son." She smiled a little genuinely, a little thoughtfully, with a slight tilt to her head. "I am beyond devastated he is gone, but I am doing my best. He wouldn't want me to forsake all the life I still have in me to live. And Odin…he's given me a purpose. He pardoned me for my part the other day. He said losing Loki was punishment enough." Sigyn shrugged. "I shall be busy here with the duties Frigga once carried out on a daily basis so that will help keep my hands and my mind busy. And, hopefully, in time I might truly move on."

"I hope so. For your sake."

"As do I." Lifting a hand she brushed it along his arm affectionately. "Will you be gone long? When can I expect a visit from my cousin next? Or shall I find out where you are and visit you instead? I assume wherever Jane Foster goes, then there you'll be."

Thor grinned and nodded. "I will be going to her, yes, if she'll have me—"

"She'd be a fool not to."

"But I think I might be gone a few years at least, as long as I'm not needed anytime soon."

"A few years by human standards or by our standards?"

"What's the difference?"

"Three or four for them. Thirty or forty for us," Sigyn quipped.

Thor shrugged and chuckled. "Ah, somewhere in the middle then, I suppose. Unless I'm needed, then all you need do is reach out and I'll be here. Just send me the Bifrost and I will travel home." He brought a hand to the side of his cousin's face and as she leaned into it, they both smiled at each other. When he stepped away he tipped his head to her and, without a single word further, began to twirl Mjolnir and then flew forward with it toward the Observatory all in the same breath.

Sigyn watched after him for a moment and then smirked to herself, she turned toward the entrance and, just as the Einherjar guard standing there prepared to step out of the way for her, she faded away. When she reappeared, she did so directly at the base of the steps leading up to the throne. Standing there looking up at "Odin" who was looking at her with deep love in his eye was unsettling.

Please don't look at me like that while you look like that, she silently begged.

Loki as Odin grinned, and he let the illusion surrounding him drop, but maintained enough of the illusion surrounding them for the sake of Heimdall who was returned to his position as Gatekeeper and Guardian of the Bifrost Bridge. Once it was Loki as himself staring back at Sigyn, his grin continued.

It's not everything we wanted, but it's close enough, he remarked telepathically.

Sigyn smiled back and curtsied with a bow of her head. "My king."

"My queen."