SHIELD's Newest

Part 10

MADDI'S P.O.V.

I awoke in dark; and the first thing I felt was ice. Ice everywhere. I was lying down somewhere cold and dark, on a hard slab.

Then, a hand grasped my arm.

"Maddi? Maddi!"

Someone shook me gently. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I rolled over. Instantly I felt bruising or something of the sort up my left side. It killed. Something warm ran down my side as I sat up.

It was either going to be piss or blood, and I was praying for neither.

"Where am I? Who are you?!" I stuttered, falling back down into the slab in pain.

I was sure it was blood now running down the left side of my body.

"Maddi, it's me, Loki." Someone held my hand tightly. A lamp was turned on to my right, and I faced the voice.

A concerned - looking Loki was at my side.

I was on a raised stone slab, in the middle of a very large, empty stone hall. He was kneeling next to the slab.

"Who'd have thought Loki would kneel for me?" I laughed tiredly.

He chuckled a tiny bit.

Where the fuck was I and why the fuck was I here? It seemed so realistic, but it couldn't be, surely?

"We mustn't let the Asgardians know you're alive. Another move, and we're both dead; along with the armies." Loki warned me.

"What happened?" I winced as my side began to sting after I fell back down.

Playing along was probably my best option, until I knew what was going on.

"We did it. We escaped from Asgard. I nearly killed you in the process; but we made it out."

He bowed his head for a minute.

"I'm sorry about your side, my Queen."

"How did you manage this?!" I laughed, pointing to my side. It hurt to laugh.

Loki looked at me for a second with unrecognition in his eyes.

"Don't you remember, my love? We pretended to have a row, and I-" He cut off and hid his face.

I looked down to my hands to find a ring on my ring finger, and faded scars all around the back of my hand.

So we were married, yeah?

And I'm guessing we weren't exactly the good guys.

"I forgive you. Don't worry. Anything for our cause."

He threw me a smile, a delicately evil grimace that made me want to rip his clothes off there and then, despite my bleeding left side.

This had to be a dream or a simulation, but it felt so real.

"They sent me to exile on Jotunheim, after the suspected murder of you. Nobody was told that, though. They were all told you'd fallen into a slumber; a comatose state, far beyond repair. You weren't breathing for around an hour. They let me take your body to Jotunheim with me."

He spat.

"Foolish Asgardians."

"You were one, once." I spoke softly, sitting up again now, used to my pain.

Loki stood up and began pacing.

I examined the "hall" closer.

Most of it was in ruins, explaining the cold. A slightly raised, giant throne stood at one end of the hall, and there was frost covering everything in a thin layer of ice.

No getaway.

I wasn't sure I wanted one.

I swung my legs off the slab and tried to stand. It literally felt like my insides were going to spill out of my side.

Where was Bethan? Is this what she was on about?

I was wearing a dress, dark green with golden embroidery. Asgardian death robes. Fine ones, too.

Loki ran up to me, and steadied me as I tried to stand.

"Why are you being so kind to me, Loki? Aren't you meant to be ruthless?" I questioned, leaning heavily on his arm and trying to walk.

He looked at me and tilted his head slightly.

"We are married, are we not? I married you because you always had a darkness  coursing through your veins, and I could sense it. If you die now, Maddi, you are wasting so much - so much potential."

"Nice to know you think I'm pure evil, and that's why you married me."

I was trying to examine his mind. How he processed his thoughts, so I could log it in the S.H.I.E.L.D. database when I woke up or returned, or whatever.

Loki looked at me.

"You look good when you're mad."

I sighed.

"Can't Heimdall see us here?"

"Cloaked us, my dear."

"Loki, I need to speak to Bethan."

"You think they're ever going to let you within a 100-mile-radius of the Queen of Asgard?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Have you developed amnesia? Bethan Odinson is Queen of Asgard! Our mortal enemies are the King and Queen of Asgard! The journey here must've really taken it's toll on your head!"

"What does that make us then?"

"The King and Queen of Darkness."