SoA - Extra scene

Mourning rites

1 week after Loki falls from the Bifröst / Pre Flash

"Brainiac I am applying for extended mourning rights." Kara whispered from where she lay in her bed within the Fortress. Her eyes were still red and crust with dried tears from the night before when she had cried herself to sleep.

Brainiac activated the holoscreen in front of her bed. "Please state you reasoning for the record."

Kara knew the rites required strict guidelines for the extended mourning, but today was the last day of her two week mourning period and she was not ready to return to the real world, nor did she feel as if she would be for a long time.

"He was my intended mate." Her scratchy voice managed to wheeze out.

Brainiac searched his records and did find a recording of such a conversation with Frigga.

Asgard Seven years prior (2003)

"Brainiac, what is required for your records if I were to arrange a marriage or betrothal for Kara?" Frigga had asked the then learning system Brainiac has been limited to due to Kara's age restrictions on his programing. She was alone in the learning room.

Earlier in the day Kara had been upset by the idea that she would grow old and die before being considered anything but an infant by Asgardian standards. Frigga seriously doubted that and wanted to know more about the Kryptonian culture regarding marriage. Something Kara had said about arrangements being common for those that could not find a suitable mate on their own had caused a flash of a fuzzy vision. She was able to see less and less of Kara's future with every passing month. But this vision was much cloudier than usual, which meant it had to be connected to one of her sons.

Brainiac's systems on Asgard had provided Frigga with the documents to arrange a validation of the intended marriage. "These forms and these tests would be required." The tests were a genetic capability DNA test. It seemed not all Kryptonians were actually genetically compatible with others of their race, but the reason was classified beyond her clearance level. Certain families were harder to match with others was the only explanation she could get.

Frigga had spent several hours going over the customs and protocols involved in matching a pair. She found it all fascinating, and rather complicated at the same time. Few marriages were arranged by the time of Krypton's end. Kara's family however was well known for not arranging marriages unless it was for diplomatic reasons.

Young Kryptonian children lived isolated from other families as young children. They did not attend a public school, as children on Asgard did. Even Loki and Thor had attended a 'public school' for noble children while also seeing to their tutored assignments due to their roles as Princes. In fact Kara had been living much as she would have on Krypton in the beginning when she was still fragile from stasis sickness. She'd been isolated in the palace with Frigga learning her lessons with a select group of servants to oversee her. It was only after she became strong enough that they had changed her routine and allowed her out to train with the younglings that she had been thrust out of her comfort zone.

Their marriage laws were almost as formal as an Asgardian noble's. For example, while love matches were preferred, if the couple was unable to have children due to incompatibility of their DNA, the union was vetoed regardless of the love match. Arrangements could always be trumped by love matches, except if the arranged marriage had already been completed.

The only thing that concerned Frigga, more than any other fact she read about. In certain families, Kryptonians tended to only have one mate in their lifetime. It was the reason the love matches tended to trump all other arrangements. The Family of El was one such family. Once their hearts were set on someone they could not love another, even if the mate died. The Kryptonian could remarry, but they would never love their new mate as they did the old.

It was strange that the species had such strange breaks. There were also those that were the opposite of Kara's family, Kryptonians that could have multiple mates, which made it easier for them to find mates among the few that were able to be with them. It was almost as if there were at least two species on Krypton, that were rarely compatible with each other.

Kara Zor El's DNA was strange. Her genetic make-up according to the Soul Forge was a mix of; Asgardian, Jötunn, Fire Giant, Ljósálfar, and Vanir, in that order of amounts too. And yet she grew as a Midgardian. At only fifteen years of age she looked like a Midgardian teenager of about the same age. Her body was almost fully developed. She would still need a few years for her hips to completely widen to fertile maturity, and like Midgardians she had a ways to go before she would be fully mature mentally.

When Frigga ran it against the DNA of her sons, Kara was incompatible with Thor. His mix of Midgard, Asgardian, Vanir and Jötunn made him almost enough of a match, but not quite. Even without the Midgardian DNA from Gaia, Frigga still didn't think Thor would have been a match. He just didn't have enough of the other types of DNA needed to be compatible.

Loki's DNA match was been almost perfect, but again not quite, but unlike Thor it was good enough that they were an acceptable match. Loki's own mix of Asgardian, Jötunn with a hint of Fire Giant DNA was compatible. There was also the added bonus of a friendship brewing between Kara and Loki since he had started working with her in regards to her powers in the past two years.

As a test, Frigga had run Kara's DNA against several others. Only those who were not 'pure' Asgardian were able to match with Kara. Those with more than one type of DNA in their genetic make-up were 'more' compatible than those without, and each had hints of both fire and Jötunn blood in their DNA. Vanir DNA or Asgardian DNA didn't seem to matter as much as the matches could be mostly of either. The people she had tested with only Asgardian or Vanir types of DNA strands in them were incompatible.

Loki's DNA had not been a surprise to Frigga. Unknown to Odin she was well aware of Loki's genetic make-up. She had always known, from his first health scan. The identity of his mother and father had been a bit of a surprise, but he was still her little miracle boy. She had also let Odin think he had been the full-blooded prince of Jötunheim. Loki's mother would have been a sore spot.

Hede had been known on Asgard as 'The Witch of the Valkeries'. When Odin decided to stop his expansion of the Nine Realms, Hede was getting too old to fight; she had chosen to retire her sword. Hede had also been much too close to the Princess Hela for Odin's liking. With Hela's lust for battle still not quenched, Hede had taken her leave of Asgard and left for places unknown.

When Frigga had held Loki's genealogy report from his first health scan, she had sworn the head healer to secrecy and changed the name of the mother to Queen Fárbauti. It was obvious that she had gone to Jötunheim, where her talents as a witch had been appreciated. It also allowed her to survive the slaughter of the Valkeries by Hela.

As a royal, Frigga was one of only a few who knew the unbridged history of Asgard. Odin had needed to bring her into the circle due to the marriage vows and magic of her abilities as a seer. Only General Tyr, the head councilman Seidring, were still alive and knew of the terrible history that Odin had used the Odinforce to hide when he banished Hela to a small corner of Niflheim. As a goddess of Death only she could survive in such a place as the Realm of the Dead. There she shared the world with the other aspects of Death that tended to unglorified dead.

Loki's surprising DNA had also explained a great deal about his magical abilities. He'd always had more control of fire than ice, despite half his DNA being Jötunn. Hede had been a fire elemental mage, and it seemed she had fire giant blood in her. It also explained his shapeshifter abilities. That skill also was Asgardian seiðr. Odin had assumed much about the child due to where Loki had been found and the color of his skin. On Jötunheim Loki would never have survived if his skin had been Asgardian, but once in the hands and warmth of Odin's hands he'd safely assumed one of his true forms.

When the test had proven Loki and Kara would be the best match possible Frigga had begun to plan for their eventual match. Kara had been easy to push towards Loki. Frigga had encouraged the little crush in Kara subtly, little nudges to share her thoughts and feelings about her lessons with Loki.

Loki had almost preened under her adoration. He'd encouraged her to read his favorite books, learn his favorite music and poems. She in turn had increased his interest in Midgardian culture once more. He'd been amazed by the level of advancement they had accomplished in such a small timeframe. There was also the Kryptonian language and writing. A perfect cypher, since the language and writing didn't correspond properly with any other language in the Realms.

They'd grown closer, and Frigga had been very careful to not directly influence Loki towards Kara beyond being kind to her, which Loki was already doing from the moment they had met. When it came to the match she had been very careful to place the idea in Odin's mind, so that he had broached the topic while Loki had been nearby. That Loki hadn't objected to Kara had been a good sign and Frigga had started her quest to make Kara see Loki as a potential match. Before tragedy struck and Loki was killed.

Frigga had completed the forms and run the tests and placed the information in the database and restricted it to Brainiac and herself only.

Present day

Kara's request to mourn Loki longer was acceptable by Kryptonian standards for non-war time mourning rites.

"How long would you wish to mourn your potential mate?" Brainiac requested once the guidelines for the mourning were approved by his internal protocols. Loki as a mate-match on record, even if the file was sealed from the mourner, did meet the requirements Kara was requesting.

Kara sat up a little surprised at how easy it had been. "Really, No debate required?"

Brainiac paused. "No debate required. Your comments regarding Loki after your return indicated that you and he were in the pre-testing stages of forming an attachment as mates, and that parental approval had been established." His answer was carefully constructed so Kara would not know what Frigga had done.

Kara was speechless.

"If I may Kara," Brainiac added, "As you are the only Kryptonian in existence, and you have already lost so much. I believe if you wish to change the mourning rites to include someone so dear to you; that should be your right. There is no one to gainsay you into only two weeks." His voice was sympathetic. He knew she had shut herself off, and she needed this time. Her physical stress levels were extremely high for a Kryptonian, and while getting sick was almost impossible while she was on Midgard, it could still occur when she was this run down.

She had actually blown out her powers the first day back. She had raged and screamed. Using her heat vision she had carved a new hallway into the underground bedrock and permafrost. As this was the arctic she had been stuck inside the warmed Fortress while her powers tried to regenerate under the Soul Forge and sunlamps. Her powers had only come back when Brainiac, forgetting she could not hear him with her powers out had scared her by materializing right in front of her like a ghost. Usually Kara could hear the imaging projectors start up and so he had never frightened her before. It had been like flicking a switch. The adrenalin boost had reignited her powers.

Kara stared at the picture beside her bed. It had always been her favorite picture of Loki and her together. They had been in front of the Taj Mahal. Standing together they had their arms around each other's waist. Loki had a carefree smile on his face. That look was rarely seen on Asgard. Kara had a bit of star struck look to her, but they had been very happy that day and the picture caught it beautifully.

"Thank you Brainiac. It means so much to me that I can do this." Kara sighed in grief as tears slowly slipped down her face and she snuggled down into her blankets once more.

"You need to eat Kara." Brainiac reminded her.

"I will, when I get up. Right now I just want to sleep a little longer." Kara murmured as sleep quickly overcame her.

Brainiac monitored her life signs. He was as worried as an AI could be. He decided if he could not get Kara to eat by midnight, he would contact Tony Stark to yell at her.

Two days later Darcy Lewis was actually the one to get her out of bed with a loud scream and a demand that she save a school bus full of kids that were being held by a gunman in Upper New York State. Kara had jumped up and left in black sweats she'd been wearing to deal with the gunman.

Three hours later Tony had replicated Black Widow's suit, minus the shock weapons, and added a small red House of El crest to her shoulder. Kara quietly added two strips of green fabric to each sleeve to honor Loki in true Kryptonian tradition.