Loki and Ingrid 31

Citizens of Asgard

“Ingrid, get up!”

          “Sif?” I roll out of bed, still groggy. “Is everyone okay?”

          “Yeah, far as I know. You’re supposed to announce your Queenhood.”

          “What?”

          “Loki wants the kingdom to know that you are going to be making some decisions for them.”

          “I am?”       

          “He doesn’t trust himself.”

          “So, I’m an advisor? Why make me queen?”

          “Because he wants to marry you, that’s why, idiot.”

          “Okay. Fine, just let me get dressed.”

---

“Wow, you really do look like Odin,” I say to Loki, “But they know, why disguise it?”

          “Less shock value to not go as myself.”

          “But I don’t want to marry Odin.”

          “You won’t don’t worry. Come on.”

---

“Greetings, Asgardians. It is I.” Loki transforms into himself, but I pay little heed. I’m just imagining taking Queen Frigga’s image.

          I can already spot Calder, and I try to avoid eye contact. I freeze.

          “And I am here today to—”

          “TREASON!”

          “THIS IS TRAESON!”

          “WHERE IS THE KING!”

          “BRING US ODIN!”

          “BRING US THOR!”

          “Bring us a beautiful blonde disguise,” says Lydvor, pouting in her Asgardian form, “What did I say about the blondes?”

          “TREASON!”

          “BLONDES!”

          “What?” One man is staring at Lydvor now, furious.

          “I only said I hate being blonde.”

          “Who are you, anyway, blonde-girl?”

          “You shut up, okay?”

          “Not now, Lyd.”

          “I am Ingrid. I am Asgardian, and I am the daughter of nobility. If you’re concerned about the purity of the throne—”

          “YOU’RE STILL NOBODY!”

          “I am Ingrid, daughter of—”

          “WE WANT THOR!”

          “Thor turned down the throne!”

          “THOR WAS DECIEVED!”

          “I KNOW HIM!” I shout, trying to be heard above the mob.

          “Then bring him back to us,” one old woman grabs onto my skirt, pleading, “And Odin, if he be alive.”

          “I…”         

          “WHERE DOES YOUR LOYALTY LIE, GIRL?” I recognize the voice as one of the junk traders, and I can feel something being thrown in my direction.

          “I—LEAVE ME ALONE! DON’T TOUCH ME! NONONONONO DON’T!—”

          Loki’s repulsion spell sends the offenders flying backwards as the crowd collectively gasps and moves back.

          “THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE A MONSTER AS A KING!”

          I dust myself off, aggressively. “I can take care of myself, Loki.”

          “Oh, we see!” Shouts one man, “He is protecting you! I can do better!”

          “I don’t need protection. From any of you!”

          “I saved your life on multiple occasions—”

          “Shut up, Loki! I’m trying to—”

          “Fine.”

          “I don’t need protection. If anything, you need—”

          “Who are you, Ingrid? Tell us about yourself!”

          “If you don’t stay quiet, I’ll use my magic!”

          “Great. Just what I needed to get a crowd to listen to me,” but it seems to be working.

          “I am a simple girl—of noble blood maybe, but what is nobility? We fought for nothing.”

          “Odin made a peace-treaty!”

          “Odin conquered nine realms. How do you think he did that? With peace treaties?”

          “That was different! Only to expand our empire!”

          “And that is worth all of the innocent blood spilled in the name of peace and order? No, they are not the same thing. Order may be obtained in many ways…but peace can only be obtained if we listen to each other and come to an agreement.”

          “Nonsense! Treason!”

          “My background is not important. What’s important is—”

          “Background has always been important to the Asgardians! The ruler must be both Asgardian and of royal blood!”

          “Well, there have certainly been some odd circumstances of late…”

          “Odd, you say? And who do you blame for that? WHO DO YOU BLAME?”
          “As I was saying…Loki is of royal blood—and I am Asgardian. Are you happy?”

          “WE CAN’T HAVE A FROST GIANT ON THE THRONE!”

          “What if it was a Midgardian? Xandarian? An allied planet?”

          “Asgardians only….”

          “But for emergency circumstances—”

          “WE NEED THOR AND ODIN!”

          “Odin is ill—”

          “THIS IS LOKI’S FAULT!”

          “No. The death of the queen took a toll. And he is old…”

          “OLD YOU SAY? OLD BUT WISE!” I can feel another rotten vegetable hitting me now, but I ignore it.

          “What was Loki doing in his cell? For his crimes?”

          “Yeah, where was he when the queen died?”

          “And could Thor save her? Did he?”

          “If I could interject—”

          “WE WANT THOR! WE WANT THOR!” The mob begins chanting over and over, hypnotically.

          “THOR KNOWS I AM HERE! AND HE DOES NOT RETURN. What, then, Asgardians?”

          “The problem—” starts one woman, her eyes locked onto Loki, “Is that you ARE NOT ASGARDAIN!”

          I put my hand up, “Allow me—”

          “WE WANT THOR!”

          “Frigga was a great woman. I knew her. But accidents happen. And there was nothing either Thor or Loki could have done. And Loki was imprisoned for crimes he committed on Midgard, yes, but he wasn’t himself; I was there. There are worse entities than you could possibly imagine, hellbent on ruling the universe. Or destroying half of it.”

          “NONESENSE!”

          “He was being controlled in New York.”      

          “AND AFTER HE SENT THE DESTORYER? WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE THAT FOR A SECOND?”

          “That I did.”

          “Believe it! Admit your crimes!”

          “Ingrid is right; I know what I saw.”

          “STOP MAKING UP STORIES!”

          “Why would I be? And you don’ t know Ingrid. She doesn’t lie.”

          “I do not.”

          “REPEATING WORDS OUT OF HIS MOUTH!”

          “Stop and listen! Please! I understand it is a confusing time,” I begin, “But there are many things that have happened, which neither of us are comfortable sharing with the general public. It’s for your own good, the less you know. Thor is working hard to save the universe from this fate. He is very busy. Odin is being kept on earth for our own safety, but I cannot tell you…”

          “My Father is unfit to rule, and my brother declined the throne, so it is unprotec—”

          “Which is why I am here.”

          “You’re interrupting me!”

          “I have known Loki for a long time.”

          “ALL THE MORE REASON NOT TO TRUST YOU!”

          “We have been friends since before any of this happened. But you only see half the story! Never judge people without knowing the full story!”

          “No. Judge them because they’re Frost Giants!”

          “Hi.”

          “Lyd?” I turn around abruptly, to see her, there, in her Jotun form. “They’re going to kill you!”

          “Eh. I thought I could help.”

          “WHO’ S THIS?”

          “My half-sister—Jotun—this just got a lot more complicated, didn’t it?”     

          “AND HE’S BRINGING MORE OF THEM!”

          “No, I’m pretty sure she showed up on her own. She’s the one who found me and offered me the throne of Jotunheim, which I kindly declined. Let it burn.”

          “YOUR WORDS MEAN NOTHING!”

          “I know it’s confusing; I know it’s hard. I’m not sure I’m ready for this either—” I glance around at a pavilion of angry subjects, suddenly feeling faint, “But we’re trying to do the right thing. Maybe in the past, we didn’t—”

          “I didn’t—”

          “But we’re going to make mistakes. We already have. And I am sorry.”

          “There’s something I didn’t want to admit before,” says Loki, “And I still don’t, but she’s here for a reason. Because I can’t rule a kingdom properly.”

          “Um,” I begin, as Lyd, looks up at the sky, and I follow her gaze, “They’re back.”

          “Aura’s followers. They never left.” I freeze, “That’s a big spaceship.”

          “Loki, I think you need to…”

          “Not do anything stupid!” Lyd tosses him a gun, “They’re parachuting down now!”

          “Not my choice of weapon—”

          “Too bad! Shoot! And don’t shoot me by accident.”

          “I’m not dumb, Lyd!”

          “Stop it!” Lyd starts shooting at the offenders, coming down now, and there are a lot of them. I’m surprised, actually, that so many people cared about Aura’s agenda.

          “We’ve got this under control!” shouts Lyd, shooting at an alien bug that landed in the midst of the crowd.

          “No, you don’t Frost Giant!”

          “Stop!” I put my hands up, trying to signal to the rapidly departing Asgardians. “Yes. I’ve got this under control.”

          “You?”

          “Yes! I am your queen now!”

          “Anyone who associates with Loki must be treated as a traitor!”

          “Then, I’ll be a traitor who is giving you orders. Get inside, right now! You!” I point at one of the young Asgardian boys, “You look fast! Go alert the generals and the Asgardian army for backup!”

          People are starting to run for the buildings now, not because they are following orders, but because the ship is now shooting lasers. The boy takes a look at me. “Go now, or I’ll tell your mother!” He starts running, as I turn back to Lyd and Loki, the former sniping every approaching fighter, the latter struggling to work Lyd’s gun.

          “That’s not how you do it!” screams Lyd, snatching the gun, and shooting it from her other hand.

          “How do you use two of those? I can’t even use one!”

          “Hey!” I shout, “Hey! I don’t have a weapon!”

          Lyd ignores me as she keeps shooting the descending army of aliens, robots, and a few of Aura’s highly trained bodyguards and foot soldiers.

          “I don’t think she’s doing such a bad job, do you?”

          I spin around, to see my defender, “Sif?”

          “Yeah? What do you want?”

          “You got stabbed the other day! You should be resting!”

          “I’m fine! I just want to tell them what’s up!”

          “We’re kind of in the middle of a fight right now—”

          “Okay!” shouts Sif, pulling out her sword.

          “Won’t work, we need long range combat.”

          “Worked when I had a knife thrown at me!”

          “Sorry!”

          “More coming—watch out!”

          “Lyd, what are you doing?” I ask, turning around to see her staring at the ground intensely, whispering. “We don’t have time for rituals!”

          She digs her feet into the ground, closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath as a force field begins to form around us.

          “Whoa, you can do that?” Sif jumps back.

          “No, get inside, silly!” I try to shove her into the force field as Loki stares at Lyd.

          “You can do that?”

          “Yeah,” Lyd shrugs and steps outside to shoot some more enemies, “This isn’t some sort of silly little game!”

          “ASGARDIANS!” shouts Sif, from the force field.

          “It’s Lady Sif!” screams someone from the crowd, “Bring us Thor!”

          “Oh, no, you don’t! He isn’t here! I wish he was too, but he isn’t, so just suck it up! Ingrid is—”

          “THEY CAN’T HEAR YOU!” I shout over the noise of the battle and the clamoring crowd.

          “OKAY, ALRIGHT I’M—” Suddenly Sif collapses to the ground, and I rush over to examine her. “She’s fine. Just fainted—she’s not strong enough for battle or yelling on my behalf.”

          “We have to get her back to the palace,” says Loki.

          I glance back at Lyd, still shooting both guns aggressively. “Not a good time. As long as we have the forcefield—”

          “Look! That boy you sent—he got backup!”

          “Good,” I sigh, “Maybe we can make a break for it.”

          “We just need to hold them off for a few more minutes—”

          It seems to happen in slow motion as Lyd fires a bullet straight at one of the robots, then a yellow-skinned sniper comes in, close to Lyd, not paying attention, still looking for her next victim, as the sniper’s bullet closes in on Lyd’s chest, and she falls….

          At that instant, the force field dissipates, and I try to grab Sif, as the battle closes in on us.

          “Loki, can you get us out of here?”

          “Too much interference!”

          “We’re just going to have to make a run for it anyway, now that the armies are coming. Grab Lyd, I’ve got Sif!”

          I don’t have Sif, and I’m not big and strong. I wish Thor was here. “SIF!” I shout, “WAKE UP AND RUN!”

          Loki has already gone with Lyd, and I am afraid I’ll get shot if I stay here much longer…. “SIF!” I don’t have any cold water to pour on her face, so I kick her in the face. It isn’t working…well, I’m just going to have to carry her, aren’t I?”

          I can’t do it. I can’t. I…Loki told me not to be so positive. But maybe I need to be positive now. Maybe this is what I need to do. Maybe if I think it hard enough…

---

“Ingrid, wake up?”

          I open my eyes to see Loki staring back at me.

          “How long did I sleep?”

          “Seventeen hours.”

          “Is Sif okay?”

          “Yeah, she’ll be fine. I’m just letting her sleep. It gets boring with no one to talk to.”

          “And Lyd?”          

          “Yeah. I used my magic on her, so she’s probably going to kill me when she wakes up.”

          “What happened to me?”

          “You came in with Sif, and you just kind of collapsed…”

          “I’m not big and strong like Thor, and I couldn’t get her to wake up.”

          “She was in shock from everything that happened. And she wasn’t strong enough to come out.”

          “So now the kingdom knows who I am? And do they like me now after I saved everyone?”

          “I don’t know what they think of you. But at least most of them seemed to listen to your orders. They wouldn’t have listened if it had been me.”

          I want to tell him that’s not true, but I know I’d be lying, so I just nod. “I guess we’ll see where this goes.”

          “I’m sorry I dragged you into all of this.”

          “No, you didn’t”

          “But I did!”

          “But if it’s with you, it’s worth it.”

          “Really?”

          “Sure. I don’t see why not. You were right, staying out of trouble is boring.”

          “That’s true. But it’s also dangerous.”

          “The world is dangerous. We might as well have some fun while we can.”

          “Don’t remind me Thanos is still out there.”

          “But it’s true. You can’t run from it.”

          “I wish I could try.”

          “Me too. Let’s run away together.”

          I almost wish we could find a new uninhabited planet, name it Planet Loki, like Nova, and then be unbothered by the universe for the rest of our lives. But I know that’s too good to be true. I can still dream.