"So it is true, then?" Loki asked, finally speaking. Odin and Frigga both nodded.

"How-?" Thor started, but quickly answered his own question. "You saw the future, both of you." Odin had supposedly traded his eye for the chance to see the future. You weren't entirely sure which myths were true and which weren't, but it seemed that he had seen at least this much of the future.

Odin inclined his head. "It is true. We have both seen these events. This maiden is the lost daughter of Freya, and the betrothed of Loki your prince," Odin's voice was loud, announcing the news to the crowd. You felt the shock around you and felt it yourself. Your entire world had been turned upside down in the matter of a few hours. It was too much to take in.

*

Somehow after that bombshell, the next event was a feast in your honor. You felt stupid at it. You knew nothing of their ways and culture and had to sit awkwardly next to Loki, who was sullen, distracted, and still hostile, though his court face was firmly in place so the strangers wouldn't notice. You, Thor, and Frigga noticed, though he still wasn't speaking to you either.

While the feast was degrading into dancing and drinking, Loki stood to talk with Frigga nearby. You could only hear part of their conversation, though.

"This is just another manipulation in my entire life of manipulations at the All-Father's hands," Loki snarled, his voice a hurt, angry sound. You wanted to go to him, but you knew you weren't welcome. You didn't know why, but he was upset with you too. "You knew, didn't you Mother," he made the word into a curse. She inclined her head.

"We knew. Loki, it was the way things were meant to play out. I saw a thousand futures, but this was the only path. I did not see that Freya would die. We still feel her loss. All I saw was that you would find your love again on Midgard,"

"You knew where she was, that she was alive, this entire time?" he demanded. "You let me mourn? Let her grow up among those horrible humans who abused her?" Frigga looked horrified at that and glanced toward where you were pretending to be interested in the mug of mead in front of you. "Why didn't you TELL ME?" he demanded, so lost and hurt. You jumped to your feet then and went to him, no longer caring that he didn't want your comfort or company. He was hurting. You couldn't just sit by and let him be hurting.

"It was the only way you would be happy, darling," Frigga said softly.

You touched Loki's arm and he whirled on you. "You knew. You were in on this too, weren't you, just another trick, another lie of my life? Like someone could love me. No wonder you attached yourself to me the second I moved into the tower." He snarled, harsh, angry. You could see him fighting for control of his magic. He was so hurt and angry he wasn't thinking clearly. At all.

"Of course not!" you replied, hurt that he would even suggest such a thing. "I had no idea until a few hours ago," you protested, but you saw the disbelief in his eyes.

"I am through being manipulated," he snarled at you and Frigga and stormed from the room. You started to go after him, but Thor grabbed your arm.

"Get off me, Thor," you told him firmly, trying to pull your arm from his grip.

"Loki is not safe in this mood,"

"I can take care of myself," you snarled at him. You had to go after Loki before he thought to teleport out of the palace. If he did, you'd never find him.

"Y/N," he protested.

"Thor, don't make me hurt you too. Let me go knock some sense into him if that's what it takes. If he teleports, we'll never find him again," Thor let your arm go.

"Be careful," he warned you. You nodded and followed Loki from the room. Once you were safely from the feast hall, you used magic to change into more comfortable clothes, jeans, a t-shirt, and your favorite sneakers, letting your hair fall from the elaborate Asgardian style and shoving the necklace under your shirt. You didn't care that you stood out among the Asgardians dressed like you were from Earth. You needed to be able to move, and maybe fight, for this conversation. You needed to be comfortable and dressing how you normally did might remind him of who you were. He seemed to have forgotten in his haze of hurt and rage.

You followed the trail of confused worried servants and the feel of the spikes in his magic to a room that you assumed must be his chambers. You were just grateful he hadn't thought to teleport away from the palace. He probably hadn't thought anyone would follow him. You slipped into the room as silently and unobtrusively as you could. He didn't look at you. He was so used to your near constant presence in his life that he probably hadn't even noticed you. He was pacing the room, anger and magic sparking around him, snarling and muttering to himself.

He whirled on you when he finally noticed your presence. "Leave me be, Lady," he snarled the last word, an insult on the title you would have here.

"No," you told him firmly. "We're going to have this conversation."

"There is no conversation to have."

"There is definitely a conversation to have," you snarled right back at him. You felt the gathering of his magic and reached out to grab his arm before he could teleport away. "We are having this conversation," you told him firmly again when he glared at you. He couldn't teleport away from you while you had a hand on him.

"Unhand me," he ordered firmly. You glared up at him in reply.

"And have you teleport away? No thank you. I know you're hurting because Odin and Frigga kept secrets from you. We are either going to have a conversation about this, or a fight over it, but I am not letting you teleport away to be hurt and miserable by yourself because you imagined that Islighted you when I have done nothing but love you,"

He pulled a dagger and you knew that he was not only being stupid, but had lost his mind to grief and anger. Hopefully it was a temporary condition.

"Fight it is," you sighed. "I'm sorry about this, love, but you're being particularly stupid and illogical. You'll think more clearly once we're home and away from these people who have hurt you so badly."

"Let go of me," he warned again. You ignored him, plotting how to do what you needed. He swung the dagger at you, in a wide arc that you knew was meant to make you unhand him as opposed to actually hurt or hit you. He wanted to flee. He didn't want to fight you. There was a chance of getting through to him, if you could just get him away from here. You blocked his dagger with your bare arm, only avoiding getting sliced open because he was trying to scare you into letting him go instead of harming you.

"I'm sorry." you said again, tears in your eyes as you betrayed his trust for his own good. "Jarvis, bind him," you ordered the tech on Loki's wrist. It was programmed to listen to you. Thankfully, Tony had designed it so it could work independently of the internet. It didn't need any kind of signal from Earth at all. You saw the hurt and betrayal in his eyes when you did. "I'm sorry. Let me take you home, love. Let's go home, get away from all of these people," you bid him. He finally yanked his arm from your grip.

"Leave me, before I'm forced to hurt you,"

"Never. I'm not leaving you in pain," you told him firmly. "I love you and want to be with you regardless of prophecies and anything that happened in this world in the past. I want you because I love you." You saw the rage and pain in his eyes. You weren't getting through to him. You stepped toward him slowly, carefully, gently, your hands away from your body, held open to show him you were unarmed. He swung at you again. You raised your arm to protect your core and hissed in pain as the dagger sliced into your skin. You saw his eyes widen when he saw your blood spill. He hadn't meant to actually hurt you. He had expected you to defend yourself. He was treating this like a squabble with Thor, not a squabble with a healer. While he was distracted, you grabbed his bare arm again. "I'm sorry," you whispered and shoved a sleep spell into him. Hard. His eyes rolled back and he crumpled. You braced him and eased him into a nearby chair. "I'm sorry, love," you told him again, pushing his hair back from his face and kissing his forehead. "I'm sorry they hurt you so much." You could feel the wounds on his soul that were bleeding just from being in this realm. They were bleeding more freely with the painful memories of the love he thought he had lost and the betrayal he'd felt from the lies he'd been told his entire life.

You needed to figure out how to get him home. "I'd suggest chains," Sif said from the doorway.

"That seems mean," you replied, barely giving her a glance. It was so much like a comment you'd hear from Nat back home that you hadn't even thought about it and answered automatically.

"You're bleeding. He can handle a little mean for injuring you, which was completely uncalled for." You still hesitated. You didn't want to hurt him, even his pride. "Bind that wound and I'll do it for you," Sif said gently. You nodded and summoned a bandage which you wound carefully around your arm and tied it off. Sif grumbled something about healers that wasn't flattering. You pretended you couldn't hear her.

You couldn't heal yourself, only others. The wound was deep, but you knew he hadn't meant it. You weren't thinking that in the 'my abuser attacked me because I deserved it' way, but in the 'I was dumb and poked the hurt scared animal and it bit me' sort of way.

When you turned your attention back to Loki and Sif, she was standing beside the chair he was in. His wrists were shackled behind him and he had chains around his chest, holding his arms to his back. She slapped a piece of tape over his mouth. "He lies," she explained quickly with a grin. You couldn't help laughing at that.

"That he does. Thanks for your help, Sif,"

"You did just fine on your own," she replied. "You really love him," she commented, her tone softening. You nodded.

"He's been my best friend since we met and my love for every moment of our courtship. He's just scared and hurt right now. I'm sure he'll be back to normal when I get him home," you told her. You looked over her with a look of concern. "You won't get in trouble for helping me, will you?" She laughed and shook her head.

"I don't intend on being found out, either,"

"This is an interesting tactic for dealing with my son," Frigga commented dryly from the doorway. You made a note to yourself to lock the door if this ever happened again. You and Sif both turned to the door. Sif bowed with a murmured 'your majesty'.

"This isn't what it looks like," you automatically started to lie. Frigga just gave you a look. You flushed sheepishly. "Ok...it might be what it looks like..." she waited overly patiently for you to continue your explanation. You saw then where Loki got quite a few of his mannerisms. "Loki's been on edge since we stepped through the Bifrost. Ma'am," you added quickly, attempting to pretend you could be polite. "He's been fighting bad memories and soul wounds, which were just made worse with all of the announcements tonight. I just want to get him home. He won't heal here," you told her emphatically. She thought over your words, then inclined her head in the same regal way Loki did.

"Very well. I did not find you," she turned and strode away, seeming to trust you to take care of her son. She was lying to give you time to get out of here without Odin stopping you. You sighed in relief, grateful for her trust and acceptance. This was all the help she could give you, though.

"Sif, you best get out of here too," you told her.

"You can handle him?" she asked, gesturing toward Loki. You nodded.

"I can. Thanks for your help," you answered.

"I hope we meet again under better circumstances," she said before she left too.

When she left, you turned your attention back to the task at hand. First you scribbled out a quick note to Thor telling him what you were doing and teleported it into his hand. You couldn't leave the realm without telling him. He'd worry.

Then you turned your attention back to Loki. You touched his cheek, using magic to rouse him again. You watched him struggle back to wakefulness and fight against his bonds. He looked up at you and glared. "Fetterer, remember?" He'd read your paper, which had included information on Sigyn, Loki's wife in the myths. Besides being the goddess of fidelity, she was also known as the fetterer, mostly of a certain trickster god. "We're going home," you informed him firmly, your hands on your hips. He continued to glare. "You have a choice. Either you can walk or be dragged." He huffed and rolled his eyes. You grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet, though it took most of your body weight to do it. "Walk or be dragged, love," you told him firmly, keeping hold of his arm.

You tried to ignore that your arm was already bleeding through the bandage. He noticed it too and at least stopped trying to fight you.

You teleported the two of you to right outside of the building with the Bifrost and started walking inside, your hand on his arm, pulling him with you. At least he walked so you didn't have to drag him. He was still hurt and upset, but you could deal with that when you were home.

Heimdall was still standing there with his giant sword. He looked stern, but you could see the glint of amusement in his eyes at Loki's predicament. "Heimdall, will you open the Bifrost?" you asked politely, ignoring his questioning glance at your captive Loki.

"Only a member of the royal family can make that request," he answered carefully.

You took a breath, straightened your spine, and announced to him: "I am Sigyn Freyadotir, betrothed of Loki Laufeyson, fostered son of Odin the All-father and I formally request that the Bifrost be opened to Midgard,"

Heimdall gave you a real smile then and a polite bow. "As my lady wishes," he replied. He did something with the sword and the Bifrost opened.

"Thank you, Heimdall," you replied politely.

"Call on me if you have need," he said as you pulled Loki to the Bifrost.

"Come along, love. Let's go home," you told Loki gently and held onto him tightly as you stepped into the Bifrost.