Universal Displacement

Home Sweet Home?

"Father," he spoke up as he moved around to stand by his brother. "Loki has indeed wronged Midgard and our people, but I fear a worse threat looms before us."

Odin's attention was drawn to his eldest son and he stood up from his throne.

"What mean you," he asked. "Speak now."

Thor sighed.

"On Midgard we were drawn through the Tesseract's power into another realm. We found ourselves on another Midgard, one that considered our people and the champions who I battled alongside to be mere legends. There we met a mortal woman with great power. She told me before our return home that another villain was in our future. One I am weary to believe."

"A Seer, then," said Odin. "Amongst mortals? That alone is hard to believe; but come. Who is this villain you so fear?"

Thor paused instead of answering straight away.

"Malekith, leader of the Dark Elves."

Everyone in the room froze. The guards surrounding Loki even fidgeted and looked up to Odin as if for reassurance that this could not be true. They all knew the stories of the Dark Elves who had tried to cast the universe back into darkness. The tales spoke of their mighty weapon, the Aether, that Malekith himself wielded.

Odin's grip on Gungnir tightened and he struck the floor with it again.

"Impossible," he said. "The Dark Elves were all destroyed by my father, Borr. This mortal was obviously a fraud."

"Father," Thor argued. "She had extensive knowledge of our world. Her earth could peer into our lives as if through a looking glass."

Loki tilted his head and grit his teeth as if frustrated.

"Listen well, for I shall never say this again, but you should listen to Thor's warning. The mortal woman has immense power-"

"Enough!"

In his anger, Odin's eye blazed fiercely.

"I will not exhaust Asgard of her people and resources for a false threat! The nine realms already descend into chaos. Thor, you will do your duty to restore order to Yggdrasil, and Loki will account for his crimes!"

Loki's eyes flickered, his lips twitched, and he did not try to protest. Thor's hands were balled into fists and his bearded jaw clenched at the dismissal and reprimand.

"Regardless of whatever lies you try to spin, Loki, your actions were your own. Consider it mercy that the dungeons are your new home."

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Victoria Sung stood before the destruction that had once been her home. It didn't matter that it had been small, or old, or a rental. It was the first place that had allowed her to live out her independence. It was where she'd made one of her first friends who wasn't only interested in her for her parent's money. And now it was little more than a hole in the ground and her friend was gone.

How had Sutton even survived this?

There was a shuffling behind her and Vicki spun around, her short black hair bobbing as she finally looked at the woman she'd been avoiding making eye contact with the entire drive here.

"Thank you for coming," the woman said. "I've been wanting to come here, but...I've had no real excuse. The officials over this...this case haven't been exactly cooperative."

Vicki's large almond eyes moistened as she nodded, her freckled face was pale.

"Mrs. Stringer, I know this must be harder for you than it is for me. If you don't want to come in-"