Chapter 5 -

Loki smiled like a wolf, he was a moment away from gloating about how he had managed to taint the purity of his priestess, but that was all before he heard the sound of Mjölnir hurtling end over end toward his head. Thor called the hammer back to him as it nearly missed Loki and smashed the wall of Esther's room; he advanced toward the trickster with a grim determination on his face. Loki stood and as he was about to bring his staff up to attack a clap of thunder split the sky. Esther looked about, the sky was black and the lightening forked its way across ebon sky, the ground trembled with each peal of thunder, and Thor's rage was palpable.

"There are countless women in this world brother, you could have had any of them, but you chose to take mine."

Loki smirked, "Your toys were always much more fun brother, and now that I've broken this one," Loki looked Thor directly in the eye, his contempt plain on his face, "you can have it back."

Loki began to laugh as Thor swung mighty Mjölnir at Loki in a wild and reckless arc; Loki sprang back and parried the gods off balanced attack. Thor swung again, sparks flew as Loki blocked once more with ease. With a guttural roar the thunder god threw himself at his brother, but met only smoke as Loki's image vanished. Esther watched this all unfold frozen in horror, she had faced monsters of all types, but the sight of these two gods fighting not more than a few feet away was both awe inspiring and terrible to behold.

"Loki! Show yourself coward! Accept your thrashing like a man at the very least and stop scurrying about like the vermin you mimic!"

As Thor continued to stalk about the room and taunt his brother he didn't quite notice his shadow moving in an odd fashion. Thor turned his hateful gaze to Esther, but before he could speak a bolt of viridian energy struck him in the back, driving him to his knees. As Loki stood over Thor; he placed the hard sole of his boot on his brothers back and pushed him over.

"I ruined her for you. I have struck you down, and now I will finish you and take my rightful place in Asgard. Do you have any last- Ugh!"

Before Loki could finish little Esther mustered up all the courage left in her, and with a scream of vengeance she hurled Grímhildr at Loki's head. Unfortunately, the great hammer felt unnaturally heavy in her hands and the middle of his back was the best she could muster in her current state.

"You wretched, petulant child" Loki snarled, "I'm going to finish what I started, and force my poor ignorant brother watches, then I am going to break your back and leave you a miserable cripple for the remainder of your days."

Esther's eyes grew large, she called out to her war hammer with her mind, yet it did not budge. Tears started to fall from her eyes, this actually drew a smile upon Loki's face.

"No, not this time wretch. I no longer have to act like your tears hurt my feelings."

Esther started to yell, but as she made eye contact with him in her fit of rage she no longer had any desire to scream, instead she stood and began to disrobe, when she finished she stood before him. Loki smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder and motioned for her to lay on her bed. He moved over to his fallen brother and taking a handful of hair, he wrenched Thor's head up and turned his face to point at the bed and his priestess. Loki slowly moved around to the other side of Esther's bed, smiling all the way, and at the spread of the woman's legs his world went black.

"Wha- What's going on? Am I… Where are my clothes!?" Esther grabbed her sheet and wrapped it tightly around her form.

She turned her head at the sound of slow deliberate footsteps near her legs. Thor stood there, glaring down at the fallen form of his brother who had crumpled into a pile when mighty Thor had taken Mjölnir and driven it into the side of his brother's head the second he took his eyes off him to look at beautiful Esther. The god of thunder stood over his brother, gone was the rage, now just a look of sorrow and regret.

"Loki you fool."

(end scene requested by Tucker Garrett)

"Thor…" Esther called out to the god.

Thor's gaze could not seem to meet her own as sadness oozed from his pores. Instead Esther's eyes followed his to the floor, seeing the knocked out mess of a little brother lie at her bedside. Esther brought her legs in curling to a ball.

"Thor, I-" Esther started.

"What has he do to you?" Thor uttered out of clenched teeth almost inaudibly.

"What?" Esther curled in closer to herself.

He moved like the wind. A knee now on the bed and his hands grasping her shoulders. Esther gasped at his sudden movements, her mind still not up to speed with the world. "What did he do to you!?" He repeated, louder and more angry then before. She cringed at his touched as it tightened with his anger. "I- I don't…" Her eyes couldn't bare to look at him as he watched her.

"Esther please, tell me what has happened…" She could hear the desperation in his pleading voice. "Thor you're hurting me!"

"Tell me!" The god called out holding the girl's tiny form in his tightening hands.

"He has known me!" Esther cried. She couldn't take it anymore, it was all too much. Eyes meeting her beloved's in sorrow. Thor's grip released in that instant looking down at the collapsed form of his brother on the floor.

"He… and you…" Esther shook her head. "He did not get as far as that my love." A hand ran through her hair brushing it from her face. "He was… He was in my mind. He knows all there is to know of me… my pains, my weaknesses, my longings…" Thor's eyes met her own with those words. "He used you against me, replacing you in my mind with himself. Everything we'd been through, you weren't there…" Tears unknowingly fell from her eyes, choking up on her words. "All I saw was Loki until the next day when there was a crack, and your face raced through my mind. I was in so much pain, I collapsed…" A hand reached up pulling the sheet higher on her chest. "I awoke in my gown…next to him." Esther looked about for her clothing worriedly. Thor rounded the bed taking the tiny slip of a dress in his hand from the floor handing it to the girl as he turned away so she could dress.

Slipping the nighty on she swung her legs over the side of the bed, feet landing just as Loki's head turned with a groan in his unconscious state. Esther winced as his now terrifying mug faced her. She pushed his face away with her foot and walked to Thor, placing a hand on his arm.

"I do not want to lie to you, but I feel if you knew the full extent of the damage that has been done, I would not be the only thing here…broken."

Thor swiftly turned, pulling the girl in a tight embrace, her feet raising from the ground. "I'm so sorry. I was so weak-"

"Do not apologize!" Thor blurted through a pained heart. "I am the one who vowed to protect you… Loki is mischievous and will stop at nothing to rule Asgard as its king. He was trying to get at me through means he'd never known of before. I do not know how he found you, but he shall not return. I promise you." Letting the girl down he kept her securely in his arms. Watching the girl, still a mess, he leaned down into a kiss. Esther's head drew back.

"You're leaving again." She whispered as Thor's lips graced her own making him stop mid-action.

"Esther…"

"Ah, no, I'm sorry. I know how things must be for us." Esther's eyes peered up at him through sweat-drenched hair. Thor furrowed his brow. He understood the pain she felt, for he too shared it. Leaning down to the girl, lips finally meeting hers. Finally, the feeling she'd so longed for. After all this he'd at last returned to her. The real him… not a messed up memory.

Thor pulled away, cradling Esther's tiny face in his hands. "As promised, I shall return. But that time is not now. I must return Loki to Asgard. He will pay for what he has done."

"You're not going to kill him… Are you?"

A loud silence passed and Thor returned to his wits. Esther could see the turmoil inside him. Loki would forever be his brother yet what he'd done was unforgivable…

"We must leave now." Thor said tossing Loki up and over his shoulder. A grunt of pain as he landed. Esther nodded grabbing a pair of pants to see them off.

As they reached the point in the field to return to the Bifröst, Esther could feel her heart pounding out of her chest. The impending departure grew closer with each second. Watching the twig-like form sway back and forth over Thor's shoulder she let out a sigh of defeat. Her feet stopped at the edge of the markings, Thor continuing on to the center.

"Esther..." He turned back peering at the small girl in the large empty field. "Esther, I love you."

"And I love you as well Thor."

"I will return to you. Soon." Thor turned his head to the skies. "Heimdall." he called to his world. A bright flash of light zapped the two demi-gods from existence in her world.

Eyes to the sky she stood, as she had time and time again, to wait for her love to return once more. He would not come back today, nor would he return this week. She knew this… but until he did, she would dream.