The prisons of Asgard were highly secured. Filled with every fiend and low life scum imaginable. Although, they appeared much more enlarged since Loki last frequented them.

Stuffing murderers, rapists, petty thieves, and compulsive liars into a tight space seemed a little ignorant to the fallen god.  It would have been better to hang some of these inexcusable monsters. Half of them were not fit for purpose, and even less than half had any wit or intelligence to govern their brutish behaviour.  Loki even felt mildly insulted that his punishment was deemed equal to these street rats and uneducated lunkheads. Surely his crimes were of much higher calibre? Surely he deserved some kind of acknowledgement for causing Odin more headaches than most of these creatures combined.

With a shake of his head, Loki returned to his couch to recline for the evening. The lights of the cells had been dimmed and most of the inmates had taken to sleep. He would read if the light was stronger, but alas that was forbidden. It was lights out until dawn...he could read then if he wished. That was what the prison guard had suggested when he requested a lamp or extra lighting. It had riled Loki that such a lesser Asgardian would speak to him so, still he had to maintain a cool head.

A way out of this cell and his sentence had to be achieved, and there was only so many options he had left open to him. He had inadvertently burned that bridge with Frigga when he denied her as his mother. That was an impulsive move, an emotive reaction that he should have been more pragmatic over. Time would probably return Frigga to him, but he was feeling very impatient and thus adhering to his sentence seemed like an unending stretch of utter boredom.

No, he had to think on his feet, and he was aware of one option. It was a long shot but Loki was certain Sigyn would come looking for him, demanding answers at least. She could play a significant roll in getting him out of this place, but that would depend greatly on his ability to control her. He wasn't overly concerned about forgiveness, Sigyn would be almost too easy to cajole. The question was, could he forgive her infidelity?

Granted it was entirely against Sigyn's very being to be disloyal or a liar...a misfortunate but usable trait...or at least it had been. The 'Goddess of fidelity' was what her traits had been coined as by Odin. Sweet Sigyn, who saw the good in all and remained loyal to her cause, 'twas really rather ironic that she should place her loyalties and affections onto a god renowned for lies and mischief - laughable actually.

Still, it made complete sense. Her steadfastness, her sense of duty, her aggravating need to please, was perfect to Loki. Sigyn would be the only Asgardian who would kneel before him happily; she would devote herself to his cause in her loyalty to him, she would take whatever punishments because of her affiliation to him, and she should have kept her mouth shut!

Something had got hold of his useful little lamb - his carefully preened and selected queen. Something - or someone - had broken his hold on the woman. And if he found out who...well, there were ways of dealing with traitors. Ways that were not as forgiving, or mind numbingly boring, as being trapped in a rectangular box.

Still the box had merits, it gave him space to think, and time to consider his various plots. There was so much happening in the universe than simply just a god of mischief running amuck. Things were unstable, crumbling, and Odin in all his AllFather glory was ignorant to at least the majority of it. Loki sneered; 'stupid, egotistical, Odin, did he not know pride cometh before a fall? Had his son not taught him that? Had the Jotun mongrel he toyed with not taught him that? Ignorant fool!'

Well, at least staying in the box was good for now, but it was certainly not a long-term arrangement. He would have to get out sooner or later, and it was his one goal to get out in time to usurp the AllFather just before everything went to the metaphorical dogs. Asgard was still his, he would have it and defend it in a much more scrupulous manner than Odin - he just needed the opportunity and patience to do so.

Absently, Loki plucked at a string of cord unravelling from the frayed ends of the blanket draped across the couch. He let his attention become fixated on the motion of winding the thread tightly around his fingers, until the blood choked from the skin and turned them blue. A deeper, harsher, blue than  that of any true Asgardian. His suffocating digits seemed almost navy now as they turned numb, he grimaced and brashly yanked the thread free of the blanket, tossing it half way across the prison cell in his irritation with it.  It was funny how such an insignificant object reminded him so much of his hatred for Odin. The god of lies and mischief he may be, but it was Odin that made it so - he created the lie, Loki was only bringing it to fruition. You reap what you sow, and all of that poetic philosophy. 

There was a clang in the stillness, not a particularly loud clang, but a muffled sound of wood against stone. A few of the inmates snuffled and rolled over in there sleep, huffing at the mild disturbances, but for the most part everything remained quiet. Loki twitched towards the sound, and fluidly came into standing. His eyes trained curiously to a point in the distance were the noise emanated from. He narrowed his gaze, striding confidently to the edge of his cell.

There was something free and unbound scurrying about in the dark. Something opportunistic and sneaky...he knew a rat when he heard one.

Raising his index finger, Loki tapped the force-field like glass. Whatever or whomever it was - if they were up to no good - should know that the prison guards were 'resting their eyes' beyond the pillars of the main corridor. The coast was relatively clear, any unsavoury guests would be most welcome now.

The guest, however, was not a rat. In fact they were more like a frightened mouse.

Shoeless feet appeared around the edge of a pillar, and with quick but silent dance like motions, they almost glided across the cold ground. The rustle of the white silk and tulle hems of a dress was the only noise, as a spectre appeared in the night to haunt Loki...or perhaps it was the other way around?

"Lady Sigyn, to what do I owe the unfortunate displeasure?" Loki asked in a mocking voice, his lips twisting up into an angry snarl.

"You would not have said that so long ago," Sigyn replied quietly as she slide up against the brick columns supporting the cell. "You can be as hurtful and vindictive as you like, I care little."

"Then why are you here?" Loki prompted his sneer widening when the woman's grey eyes boggled knowingly. Sigyn didn't answer, instead she bit her lip and bowed her head. She was always too easy to read, her heart was too open. Placing his palm on the glass, Loki leaned towards the guilty party; "it is a simple question...if you do not care why are you here?"

"You are twisting my words," Sigyn hissed, her eyes suddenly snapping upwards to meet his, a strange new fire in them. "I said I care little how you treat me with your foul words, but I never said I did not care for you."

"Care?" Loki snorted and hunched back from the glass, chuckling darkly and shaking his head. "Oh Sigyn I am afraid you cannot win my forgiveness by throwing such petty emotions at me...caring? You care little for me, goddess of fidelity."

"You deny it all you want, but it does not change the truth Loki. You can twist and convince yourself otherwise, but you know how I feel. I would not risk my life by coming here if I didn't care," Sigyn murmured in a quiet but strong voice, her eyes never leaving his. He would not dream of challenging her on this...he couldn't...she did not believe it was in him to be so petty.

"You are nothing but a manipulator, a farce," Loki snapped, his eyes narrowing as he shrewdly observed how each word he flung at her caused her to react, though of course she tried not to. With each accusatory allegation he made, she tried harder to convince him - or maybe herself - that it was not so. It just as easy as he had imagined.

"Loki," she breathed and rested her forehead against the cell wall. "They told me you were dead. They tricked me. I thought I could trust them. I thought I could salvage your dignity, what was left of your memory, I did not know what else to do I was heartbroken!"

Tears sprung to Sigyn's eyes in that moment, as the memories of that fatal day returned. The destruction of the bifrost, and the lies she had been fed, it made her blood run hot in fury. When she discovered she had been hoodwinked into revealing Loki's plans to a devious Sif, it was all too late. The so called champion took her ill gained news to Odin and Sigyn found both herself and the memories of her fallen Loki disgraced.

She found out much later that he was still alive...alive and arrested! Not one soul came to tell her, not even the Queen. It was by mere gossipers on the streets that she heard the tale - Loki had tried to take rulership of Migard, only to fail at the hands of the Mighty Thor. What wonderful transformation did that brute go through to make him any more deserved of the throne than Loki? Just because of blood and entitlement, like he was some kind of prized bull. It was despicable, and Sigyn had long since decided that bowing to Thor was not something she could stomach.  He was the unworthy one in her eyes, because he had always deemed himself more worthy than her...more worthy than most. Not that Loki was much better, but his ways were more appealing.  He thought before he spoke, considered before he acted, and that held more merit to her than a god with a hammer and a thick head!

"I was always loyal to you, you know that to be true," Sigyn groaned, the pain in her chest burned and bile rose in her throat. It was confusing and painful to see her love before her; alive and thriving.

She had believed him long dead, she mourned him, and now he was here and she could almost touch him. Her lifelong friend, her confidant, the man she gave herself to. Yet, here he stood, hating her and rebuking her for her infidelity...the shame was almost unbearable.

Loki watched on with a stoic face, barely touched by the broken pleas Sigyn mewed. It was what he wanted, he wanted to see her beg for him. He wanted to let the shame of her one mistake burn her into acceptance and submission. Maybe then he could put that one little blip behind him and forgive her, after all she had forgiven him his on countless occasions...it was the least he could do. However, he still wasn't finished with her. She wasn't quite broken down enough...she still wasn't feeling it on a personal level.

"I find it rather ironic that you come here to snivel out your defence in a white gown," Loki mused, his gaze sliding away in the distance. He smirked at the sudden halt of her barely audible whimper. "White, the colour of purity, of fidelity, of innocence...is it not?"

"Loki...do not...it is all have-"

"Yes, I can see that," Loki sniffed in disgust. The dress was mended, the hems frayed, the white discolouring and turning grey. It had been a beautiful gown, he remembered the day she was gifted it by Frigga, for her honour and chastity. He also remembered the last time he seen it; were it lay as a crumpled heap on the ground.  When he had thoroughly revoked any notions of honour and chastity.

It gave him a small pleasure to watch Sigyn's features colour at the shared memory. This was his true hold over her, and he could tell he still remained the only one that had ever touched her, and by the look in her eyes he was confident he would only ever be the one to possess her innocence. It was always exactly how he wanted it.

"A harlot in white...do you think you fool them goddess of fidelity?" His words were soft and sweet, and they cut straight into the core of her being. The final and finishing blow had been executed flawlessly.

Sigyn knelt to her knees, her eyes downcast, her lips parted in shock. She had not expected the blow, at least not one as low as that. Her fingers slid over the fabric of the worn out dress, the very last of her elegant gowns. It was a symbol for all she was, and a shrine for all she had lost. Loki knew this, he knew this because it was she that had comforted him that night.

The confusion and the panic at discovering what he truly was...a frost giant.

She had warmed his skin with hers, she had showed him acceptance in the face of fear, and she bolstered him when he needed it most. From the beginning she had been loyal, she had proven that to him that night. Loyalty, devotion, care was all that she displayed in the act and he was a fool if he thought for a second she did not see through his game.

"A harlot in white? Is it truly in you to call me that, you, a monster in a god's skin?" Sigyn spoke evenly as she rose to her feet, her tear rimmed eyes falling over Loki, she half smiled at the flinch he gave. Those were the words he had whispered when he showed himself to her, before he cowered from her touch. "You can point the finger at me, my dearest Loki, but I know the words you spoke in the dark that night. I also remember the pleasure and the joy. I remember each touch and how you held me, and I remember the days that followed. The promise you made, the confession you gave, and the gift-"

"Stop!" Loki snarled and lunged at the glass. The same cutting knife he used to slice into Sigyn was slowly worming its way into his heart. Sigyn barely flinched from his advance, she bravely held his seething gaze and the ice in his veins began to splinter; "The Loki you speak of is dead! He was weak and disillusioned, when he allowed one as pathetic as you to bolster him...I will not make that mistake again!"

"My love," Sigyn murmured sadly as her eyes soaked up the pain and anger in his - although it was difficult to find beneath a layer of cold indifference. "Don't you know that they hurt me too?  You can loathe me all you wish, but right now, I am the only ally you've got...we both know that. I am not that naive Loki...you made sure of that."

***********************************
You can only toy with something so much until you break it.

Yeeey princeleggy and princesswithashotgun thank you so much you guys. Writing a Marvel Fic is completely new territory for me sooooo the support is actually what is ensuring I write and finish this story.

Rousdower - I know...you've waited forever for an update. You can thank THiddy and my completely irrational adoration. See...it's good for something.

Anyhoo...I don't know how to dedicate but -
princesswithashotgun is actually a legend. An incredible writer and a supportive friend. Couldn't ask for more. Check The Shadow Walker, you'll not be disappointed. I'm hooked already.