Revelation
“Eden, I want you to wait over here,” Thor told her urgently, shoving her into the corner by the hot tub.
“What? Why?”
“Trust me! Stay there, and don’t come out till I call you!” He pulled a curtain across the corner to hide her, and scurried away to his own hiding place.
In a minute, the Valkyrie walked in, and Thor, taking a deep breath, put his plan into action.
It worked like magic. The Valkyrie, thinking that his idea was to persuade her, didn’t even notice his Cunning Plan to pick her pocket. At last he held up the remote control with a smile. “Didn’t see that, did you?” To her credit, the Valkyrie didn’t try to stop him as he pressed the button to remove the hellish device from his flesh. “Eden!” he called.
She came out of her hiding place. “What’s going on?”
“We’re escaping,” he grinned, threw the medicine ball against the glass to chip it, and then punched it open. “Come on—and don’t scream.” Without waiting for her response, her picked her up with one arm, tossed her easily over his shoulder, and leapt out the window.
After her first yelp of terror Eden, hanging upside-down over his back, squeezed her eyes shut, grabbed onto the only part of him she could get hold of—his waist—and held on for dear life. In a few short moments they were on the ground, and he peeeeeeled her off of him, setting her on her feet again. “You alright?”
She was panting, looking greenish. “No!”
“Great. Come on.”
He led her to the Quinjet and tried in vain to make it recognize him while Eden stared around at the interior. He finally got the ship’s computer to identify him—he would have to have a stern talk with Tony about the importance of names in vital technological access—and turned to smile at Eden. “Ready to go?”
“NO!” a familiar voice thundered behind them. “THOR, DON’T GO.”
In a moment Eden was diving behind Thor to avoid the Hulk, who was doing his best impression of a bull in a china shop. “Hulk! Hulk, stop!” He was destroying their one chance to get off of this godforsaken planet.
At that moment, a video of Nat was triggered, and even more chaos ensued. Eden peeked out over Thor’s shoulder as the Hulk bellowed, staggered—and transformed back into Bruce Banner.
Thor went to talk him down, finally managing to convince him to put on some of Tony’s clothes. It was only then that he glanced back up to see Eden still staring at Bruce, eyes wide as saucers. “Eden? You alright?” he asked for the second time that morning.
“Did—that just happen?” she squeaked, gesturing to encompass the entire Area of Bruce.
“Yeah. Eden, meet Bruce. Bruce, Eden. She’s from Iowa.”
“Hi,” Bruce said weakly. “How’d you get roped into this shitshow?”
“Alien cow-tipping party,” she answered in much the same tone.
Bruce looked down at the pair of pants he was holding, and back up at her. “Do you mind—uh--?”
“Oh—right. Sorry.” She scurried out of the damaged jet to give him some privacy.
---
Soon they were scurrying through the marketplace, Thor trying to “disguise” himself with a piece of sacking over his head, Bruce tugging at his tight jeans, and only Eden looking anything like normal among her surroundings.
“Sun’s getting low, sun’s going down, sun’s getting real low,” Thor chanted over and over again.
“WOULD YOU STOP SAYING THAT!” Bruce hissed in a furious whisper as they took shelter in a doorway.
“I’m trying to keep you calm!”
“WELL IT’S NOT KEEPING ME CALM!”
“Wait.” Eden tapped on Thor’s arm. “WHAT are you doing?”
“If he freaks out, he could turn into the Hulk again. And we’d be in big trouble,” Thor answered succinctly.
“And I’m about *THIS CLOSE*,” Bruce shout-whispered, holding up his finger and his thumb, “to punching your lights out! Then we’ll SEE if the ‘sun’s getting real low’!”
“Okay, okay.” Eden moved over between them and put her hand on the back of Bruce’s neck. His shoulders, which had been tensed up around his ears, began to droop a little in relief, and his rapid breathing slowed. “There are better ways to calm somebody down, Thor.”
“Well, not all of us have your—magic fingers!” Thor wiggled his in demonstration.
“Alright. You too.” She reached for him and he leaned away from her hand. “Deep breaths,” she advised instead. He took a few. “Now try it again.”
Thor caught Bruce up on the past two years, Eden looking back and forth between them with increasing bewilderment. “Okay,” she said at last to Bruce, “so you’re like, Dr. Jekyll.”
“Basically, y—"
“He’s Dr. Banner—weren’t you listening?” Thor answered in surprise. “Seven PhDs?”
“Hey!” She elbowed him in the side and pointed. The Valkyrie was standing a short distance away with an amused look on her face. She gestured for them to follow her.
---
The Valkyrie led them back inside the Grandmaster’s tower and up toward her quarters. “I thought we just escaped this building?” Bruce whispered urgently to Thor. “Why are we going back in?”
“I’ve got a surprise for you,” the Valkyrie announced and opened the door.
Loki sat chained on the floor. “Hellooo.”
Bruce stared. “Oh, shit.”
“Uh—” Eden looked confused. “Who’s this?”
“I’m Thor’s brother, Loki.”
“Adopted,” Thor muttered.
“The—trickster god?” Eden asked.
“If by trickster god you mean genocidal maniac, then yes,” Bruce answered.
“Oh, come on.” Loki rolled his eyes. “Homicidal, yes. Not really *genocidal*.”
Bruce’s nostrils flared.
Thor crossed his arms and regarded Loki. “What are you planning to do with him?” he asked the Valkyrie.
“He says he can help.”
“I have the Grandmaster’s security codes,” Loki told them, though he was speaking mostly to Thor. “You can use them to get into any of his ships—into his armory.”
“And what do you want in return?”
“Get me off this miserable planet,” Loki growled. “The interior decorating is hideous.”
Thor nodded slowly. “Alright. You give us the access codes—and one more thing.”
“What?”
“Tell us what she is.” He indicated Eden.
Eden glanced at him and did a double-take. “Ex-CUSE me?”
“Well, I mean, you’re clearly not human.”
She looked scandalized. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“Well, you don’t seem to age,” Thor explained, “and the way you can JUMP! Have you seen her jump?” he asked the Valkyrie. She shook her head, as confused as Eden. “She can really jump.”
“This is ridiculous.” Eden crossed her arms, fuming.
“Thor, are you sure--?” Bruce began.
“Yeah! You’ve felt her—” He wiggled his fingers. Everyone just stared at him. “Just—okay, look,” he said, trying to pacify Eden. “If my brother doesn’t find anything, he doesn’t find anything. No harm done, and I’ll apologize. And if he does—well, then we’ll know.”
“What do you mean find anything?”
“He’s a master sorcerer. I’m sure he’s got a spell for that.”
“I don’t think it’s like Google,” Bruce muttered.
Thor and Eden stared at one another for a long moment. “Okay, fine,” she said at last, throwing her hands up in the air.
“I DO have a spell for that,” Loki interjected. “In case anyone’s interested. You’ll have to unchain me, though.”
“Do we have to?” Bruce asked Thor.
He nodded, and the Valkyrie unlocked the chains. Loki stood up and stretched. “Ah—that’s better. Come here,” he added to Eden. She held back. He sighed. “I’m not going to murder you.”
“That’s exactly what a murderer would say,” Bruce said under his breath. Thor elbowed him.
Eden approached cautiously, and Loki reached out and put his hand on her forehead, closing his eyes. “Oh—my,” he smiled.
“What?” she asked. “What is it? I’m human, right?”
“Half right.” He let go and looked at Thor, still more interested in his brother than anybody else in the room.
“What?” Eden bridled.
“Her mother was human. But her father…”
“What? He was a poet!” she insisted.
He gave a small laugh. “Not just a poet. THE poet.”
“What?”
He looked back at her for the first time. “He wrote poetry. Romeo and Juliet. Hamlet. The Canterbury Tales. Beowulf. The Poetic Edda.”
She scoffed. “Impossible. Those were composed by different people hundreds of years apart.”
“Different names. Same person.”
She looked at Thor for help. “You’re saying her father was immortal?” he asked Loki.
“He was Asgardian. His name was Bragi.”
“Bragi!” The Valkyrie took a step forward. “The God of Poetry—I knew him! He disappeared after the conquest of Midgard.”
“He stayed,” Loki told her, and glanced back at Eden. “And apparently, has fathered children.”
Eden was wide-eyed.
Thor was thrilled. “You’re Asgardian, Eden! Isn’t that great?”
She wavered on her feet and he caught her arm. “I want to sit down,” she said faintly, and Thor propelled her into a seat. “Can I get a drink?” she added in the same tone to Valkyrie.
“That’s actually not all,” Loki informed them, crossing his arms.
Eden whimpered.
“She’s also Idun, the Goddess of Life.”
Eden went white to the lips, and the Valkyrie, just coming back with a drink, pushed the girl’s head between her knees.
“Thanks,” Eden mumbled.