Loki and Ingrid 41

The Void

“Gadalia, it isn’t going to work on them…”

          “Leave them for now. Not like they can escape…”

          “No, but what if they talk?”

          “They won’t, Proxima says so.”

          “Then being them to Mistress Proxima, Gemina.”

          “I can’t. Proxima is back on Titan.”

          “Stick them on your ship, I don’t care, as long as you leave Lydvor to me...”

          The conversation feels unimportant, as I feel immobile, I don’t care what where they take us, a hundred thousand flaming knives…

***

          “Get out!”

          “You told me to stay.”

          “I told you to leave. What do you think you’re doing, Ingrid? It won’t be long before my master plan reveals itself.”

          “Master plan?”

          “What if I told you I was working for Thanos the entire time?”

          “That’s not possible.”

          “What if it was true. What if I killed you.”

          So be it, I would always stay. The sky is red and mesmerizing, and we are alone, on a beach.

          “So, this is all you have for us?”

          I hear a sinister voice, and I spin around, unable to see anything.

          “Yes, Mistress Proxima,” says Gadalia, “All we have. Now that Lydvor is slaughtered at my hand…” she gives a little laugh as my stomach churns. “But I’m sure they will be valuable to you, once they see.”

          “Unimportant. He failed us once before.”

          “He won’t do so again, Proxima. Once we change his mind…”

          “Change his mind? How?”

          “Oh, it will be easy. Make him talk, after some mental manipulation, and then if he does not comply, we kill the girl before his eyes. Talk about manipulation.”

          “That girl is worthless.”

          “Yes, and don’t you agree, Gemina?”

          “She’s evasive, they always escape somehow. Maybe killing her would break him…”

          “Aura already tried that, though.”

          “That was just because Thor intervened.”

          “Ah, so we have a bigger target?”

          “Just you wait, Mistress Proxima. Just you wait.”

          The scene fades, and I am floating through a vortex in space, seemingly all alone.

          “Failed us again?”

          “Proxima?” I can suddenly speak.

          “No. It’s Aura.”

          “Aura? Loki killed you!”

          “I cannot be killed, I never die, Ingrid. Go away.”

          The scene fades again, and I am in a long, white hallway.

          “It’s all your fault,” the figure turns around, and I see that it’s Nova. “You’re ruining the plan. I couldn’t kill you, and I died. Maybe Thanos would have spared me had I succeeded in turning him.”

          “You refused to serve Thanos, remember?”

          Suddenly I’m in the library on Asgard, except the ceiling has caved in. In the midst of all the wreckage is Loki, as he was when we met, calmly studying.

          “Who’s there?”

          “It’s just me…it’s Ingrid?”

          “Who are you?”

          “Ingrid, your friend!”

          “I don’t know who you are, so please go away.”

          “You’re lying. You said you’d been watching me for years…years…years…years”

          My voice echoes around the room, and then I’m in the forest, and Calder is mocking me, pointing through the trees and laughing. There’s no one there, he’s just flexing his muscles and laughing at me, but I’m no more than a ghost.

          I’m in the sunlit room inside the Loki’s trials, and I am all alone, save for a solitary bird, singing loudly and off-key. It gets louder and louder as my ears start ringing. Then silence. It is black. I can’t see or do anything, my muscles are limp, I can only feel my heart thudding in the midst of the blackness.

“Come, child.” I hear the voice, beckoning, cold and sick. “Come and see, the vision. A perfect balance.”

“Ingrid?” The voice is far off, and every ounce of my mind tells me to ignore it. “Ingrid, come back!”

I suddenly feel myself speak. “No. There is no going back. I am a child of Thanos.”

“Ingrid, it’s Gadalia, she’s—”

I ignore it, and focus on Thanos, huge and purple, sitting on his throne. I stare in a mixture of awe and disgust, but slowly gratitude. This was what I always wanted, balance, for the good of humanity, and Thanos could give me that.

“Will you join me, Ingrid?”

The question lingers as I try to gather my thoughts. Something about this isn’t right. But at the same time…

“INGRID! DON’T LISTEN TO HIM!”

“Join us, Ingrid. Join us now, or die.”

“DON’T LISTEN, IT’S JUST THE MIND CHIP! DON’T—”

The voices sound so familiar, but I can’t place it. My head, no, my entire being is being split apart, Thanos tugging on one side of my essence, the others tugging on the other side. Every cell, no every molecule, every atom of my body is body is being split into a million pieces, unlike a pain I have ever experienced, can’t think, can’t talk, can’t breathe. Just end it. Then a crash. Then everything fades to black.

***

“Hope this works…” I hear a voice, but I can’t figure who it belongs to. But the pain is gone, and I can feel myself again. I’m lying on some sort of hard surface, but too disoriented to dare open my eyes, try to speak. Still immobile, but alive.

          “She doesn’t travel well.”

          “No, it’s not that. It’s what they did to her, it’s not your fault.”

          “But I was under the same spell—”

          “It isn’t magic, idiot, it’s some sort of creepy technology.” Lyd? She’s alive? No one else would say that.”

          “Nevermind.”

          “If that didn’t work, I don’t know—”

          “It was a last resort.”

          “You knocked her unconscious?”

          “Yes, but it wouldn’t have been enough to shake the effects. Physical removal was the only option.”

          “The magic only works for short distances…sorry about your ship, Lyd, Thor’s was closer.”

          “I’m not mad about that,” snaps Lyd, “but I’m still trying to figure out what the heck is going on.”

          “I don’t know where Gadalia got that technology.”         

          “Proxima. But she’s modified it since. It’s stronger now. The projections made it worse.”

          “I understand. But why didn’t you use Bifrost?”

          “Asgard is the last place to go right now, I told you—”

          “And I told you I talked to Calder and I’ll have Sif tighten security when she’s feeling better.”

          “Why don’t you go? Is it my charm?”

          “Trust me, your little charm wouldn’t stop me from going if I wanted to. I’ve been back, and you know that. The attack—”

          “The day I killed Aura.”           

          So, she really is dead. You were seeing things, Ingrid.

          “Is she going to be okay?”

          “Of course not, idiot. Would you be okay after mind control and insanity?”

          “Yes. I’m sure that I would be, not that I would know—that’s not what I meant, and besides, you know full well what happened to me.”

          “Can you please stop arguing?”

          “Sif, you’re awake!”

          “Yes,” she says, but she sounds tired. “I’m awake. How’s Ingrid?”

          “Still out, I’m afraid.”

          I’m not. I’m not out. I’m conscious. I just have no idea what the hell is going on. “I’m…I’m…not.”

          “Ingrid?”

          “What happened?”

          “Don’t worry about that.”

          “No really, I need to know what’s going on.”         

          I open my eyes to a blinding light of everything around me, then it slowly comes into focus, a ship ceiling, even smaller than Lyd’s ship, Loki, Thor, Lyd, and now Sif hovering over me.

          “Proxima and some of her followers, presumably Gadalia, have access to some very rare and special devises, which not only cause extreme pain, but have a number of mental properties, making the memory-trading, mind-reading, and even mind control. All the things you saw, they weren’t real. Except for Gadalia and Gemina talking at the beginning. That was real.”

          “How do you know what I saw?”

          “You were saying strange things, so I read your mind.”

          “Fair enough, tell me more. What about the chip on you?”

          “Manual override.”

          “Whatever that it, why didn’t you use it on me?”

          “It’s not simple like pressing a button, it’s a mindset.”

          I try to nod, but I feel so stiff. Everything hurts.

          “I saw everything you saw, they were trying to manipulate your thoughts and memories, by causing visions to convince you that Thanos was right.”

          “I know, I was so confused. You and Thor were yelling at me—”

          “We weren’t yelling.”

          “Yes, you were, but it sounded like it was really far away.”

          “Yes, anyway—”

          “So, where am I?”

          “You’re on Thor’s ship. It was the closest safe destination. I daren’t use Bifrost for tracking purposes. They know we’re on Asgard. Thor and Sif are going to work on security.”

          “I know, I heard. So, how did I get here?”

          “I used magic to transport you to the forest from Thanos’ basement?”

          “Yes?”

          “It’s an extremely difficult and powerful spell, and it only works well for short distances. The longer the distance, the riskier. Thor and Lyd came back just at the right time, he hit you on the head, but as long as they could access your mind it wouldn’t be enough, not to mention they weren’t going to let me do anything in a couple seconds. It’s a very hard spell, then I had time and thought, not to mention I was transporting two people and not five. Not to mention Sif being unconscious and the mind chip making you unwilling to leave, I had split-second timing. It was risky behavior, but Thor said it was our only chance when I told him Bifrost was unsafe. I know you don’t travel well, and you were resisting it. I had to tear you away from their control of you, while you were resisting it, not to mention the others and myself. It hurt so much because, if a scientific explanation is needed, it’s a rearrangement of matter and molecules to travel, and they were trying very hard to keep you. That’s why it hurt so much, and I’m told you don’t travel well as it is.”

          “Spacesick.”

          “Lyd!”

          “So, the TL; DR is, sorry it was jank, he had quick science shit to do,” says Lyd, “And he was freaking out about it since there was some sort of distance gauge problem and you were screaming and you almost died and we were all worried and you need to stop scaring us.”

          “Sorry, Lyd. Really, I was screaming? I don’t remember.”

          “Yes, you were screaming,” says Thor, “But you’re safe now.”

          I’m safe now. But not for long, it never ends.