My Last Breath

Twilight fell upon the thick cluster of trees. Though it was a full moon, shadows engulfed the soft light...shadows that belonged to unearthly creatures that had never been seen by human eyes. Well, almost every human.

~*~

"Mayura!"

The voice split the night but she didn't listen or look back. She kept running into the most shadowy part of the forest, almost indistinguishable from the dark clump of foliage. He looked up, his heart thumping, as he realized where she was headed.

The Spire.

~*~

He was almost there now. He looked back and laughed at the pitiful thing running after him.

So clueless.

Meanwhile, the great, black, dilapidated tower the mortals named The Spire came into view.

He smiled.

~*~

"I feel something..."

"What is it...is it Daddy?"

The green-haired man, who was dressed as a butler, gave him a meaningful look and headed out the door, a small black dog following.

~*~

Odin surveyed the whole area thoughtfully. Everything was falling into place. He could almost see across the sea, atop the forty-foot lighthouse. He turned his head toward the far reaches and whistled. His eyes perceived a distant glow of light.

Yes. Almost time now.

~*~

A whistle pierced the still night air. Loki stopped in his tracks, jerking his head upwards to look at the gloomy lighthouse. His eyes narrowed.

It couldn't be...

~*~

"Daddy, wait!!" The butler and the black pup followed the little figure with their eyes, watching him climb the rickety stairs surrounding the building.

~*~

The whistle started the domino effect. Far away on a big black rock, the eagle and the boy carried out their commands.

"I will destroy him this time. I swear on my right eye..."

~*~

Loki nearly lost his balance on the unstable steps, his way barred by a huge hawk and a shadowed character.

"I've come to take back my eye. If you give it back, your mortal survives. Or else, she dies."

Loki chuckled despite the dire situation at hand.

"I've told you, I don't have it. Odin's been playing with you this whole time. You've been deceived."

Heimdall reacted immediately. At his one imperceptible movement, the battle began.

~*~

The two spectators gasped in shock as they saw a large hawk fly furiously towards Loki, scattering feathers everywhere.

"Daddy!" They made a move to join the battle above them, but found their way blocked.

"You don't have time to be worried about him now."

Straining their eyes against the unnatural darkness, they could make out the faint outlines of three girls.

"But Fate is neutral, you can't..." Yamino-kun trailed off as an unnatural darkness engulfed his view of the world.

He was now alone.

"Onii-sama!!"

~*~

Fenrir, however, couldn't hear Yamino-kun's pleading cry as he was occupied with his own problems. Creeping, thorny plants had firmly tied his paws down. Struggling against them merely tightened the grip. Fenrir could only guess that the same was happening to his younger brother.

He growled ferociously. A faint yellow light surrounded his contours, growing stronger until suddenly vanishing. Fenrir gasped, a little out of breath.

"What?! I can't..."

"Transform?"

Fenrir snapped up his head at the voice.

"Urd!"

She looked around her at the binding darkness.

"This darkness serves a barrier," she looked at a struggling Fenrir, "to prevent the Wolf and the Midgard Serpent from foiling His plans."

The little pup bared his teeth, growling all the while. He lunged at the girl in front of him, half-knowing it would be in vain. Instead of falling back to the ground however, he was lifted up high into the air, forced to dangle from the thorny plants now wrapped tightly around his whole body.

Unable to look down, Fenrir didn't see the Norn disappear into the shadows.

~*~

"Aaargh!!"

Loki felt his small frame being crushed tightly, knocking the wind out of his lungs, followed by the cold, night air on his face. Before he could see what was happening, he was dropped, not too lightly, upon a smooth, hard surface.

Gaining his breath back, he struggled up onto his feet and realized he was now on top of the Spire.

It was completely bare at the top except for a long, thick lightning rod at its center. Barely five meters in diameter, the tower offered nothing to grab if one should accidentally fall.

Wings rustled to his left; he whirled around, ready to face off Heimdall once again. Instead of reacting, his opponent merely gave a twisted smile at his confusion, standing with his hawk on his arm.

Girlish, tittering laughter emanated from behind him. Loki faced his second opponent only to find...

"Mayura!!"

The pink-haired mortal raised her arm and wiped it across her view of Loki.

"That form is much more appealing, don't you think?" she commented, watching the scowling face of a now six-foot Trickster God.

"Leave Mayura out of this. You're a coward for hiding behind an innocent girl."

Odin simply smiled and strolled forward, nonchalantly. Loki stood his ground.

"So far you've escaped my grasp," she put her hands behind her back, as if lecturing a child, "I sent many assassins out, who failed in the task given to them."

Now only a foot away from Loki, a sword materialized in front of her.

"But now I will finish this."

He raised his sword and, in a swift movement that cost less than a second, brought it crashing down on Leviathan. Sparks flew.

Both opponents sprang back and the fight began.

~*~

"Megane! Fried Rice!" The God of Lightning ran over to help Yamino and Fenrir, who were now free of the binding spells.

"How DARE you??" A few meters away from them, the three Norn sisters were pushing themselves off the ground.

"Thor, how did you..."

"Never underestimate the power of my Mjollnir," he smiled back.

Indeed the Norns were looking a bit dazed, their hair slightly at odd angles, as if from an electric shock.

Using the sisters' disorientation to their advantage, both siblings transformed into their real forms in a bright flash of yellow light.

~*~

Loki was slowly tiring. Odin, as expected from the Father of all Gods, was unlike any opponent he had fought against before. He was not in the least bit disadvantaged even in Mayura's body.

Purple streams of light shot out from Odin's hand and enveloped Loki and would have torn him into pieces if it had not been for his shield. Loki sent back angry red blobs of light, which Odin of course dispelled in a mere wave of his hand.

"You're going to have to better than that...unless you're afraid of getting your Mortal hurt."

He chuckled and suddenly sent back the same red light that Loki had attacked him with. Loki, surprised, blocked it with a second to spare.

Not giving him even a breath, Odin shot another spell, silver this time, that also enveloped Loki, lacking any resistance from a weapon.

For a moment, it seemed that the light just hung around its victim but inside, Loki seemed to be weakening.

"Wha...what is this??" he said, now falling to his knees on the stone surface. He dropped Leviathan, gasping for breath.

Odin merely smirked, walked over, and aimed his sword at Loki.

"Wait!"

Odin turned, clearly surprised. Loki didn't bother, knowing what was coming.

"Let him give my eye back...before dying."

Odin turned back to Loki, who was giving him a disgusted glare amid his grimace of pain.

"He doesn't have it. You should have believed him," he looked the tiniest bit rueful as he revealed the truth, "I had taken it for its power but it seems I was not meant for it and Fate had it destroyed."

There was a bitter silence, punctuated by Loki's wheezing coughs who still had the cloud of silver light surrounding him.

Loki looked at Heimdall weakly and saw him staring from Odin to him. His eyes went wide, sorrowfully, and looked away as Heimdall stumbled over the edge...and fell.

He didn't scream. His gruesome face was still imprinted upon Loki's mind, full of shock, disbelief, and...regret. Loki squeezed his eyes shut.

I'm sorry...my friend.

"L-Loki-kun?"

Only hearing that voice again gave Loki enough strength to snap his head up.

"Where are we? Why are you down there?" Mayura knelt in front of him, and gasped.

"You're hurt," she said, and her smile returned, "Don't worry, I'll take care of you."

Loki had started leaning towards her in relief, wanting to hug her tightly, not caring where Odin had gone, forgetting about the Weakening Spell that was around him still.

"Mayu..." He trailed off on her name. He gasped. His eyes went wide. There was a chuckle.

"What happened to your intuition that you were so proud of? You couldn't even tell it was really me...your foolish love...all for nothing." Odin chuckled again.

Loki fell back, and fainted. There was now a long, glittering sword sticking out of his back.

~*~

There was a loud growl from the depths of the wolf's throat. He turned to look at the enormous snake beside him. They looked down at the four figures below, three of them strewn across the ground.

Fate was destroyed.

They heard the low crackle of thunder, as the Earth began to shake slightly.

Ragnarok had been fulfilled.

A bright flash of light caught their attention. Gasping simultaneously, they realized, with horror, what had happened. The big black wolf, however, roared with a deafening sound. The serpent's eyes glittered blue, his expression terrible.

"DADDY!!!"

~*~

Odin narrowed his eyes at Fenrir, who stood before him, livid with grief.

"Ah, the spawn of the Trickster God. Are you well?" he smirked, infuriatingly calm.

Fenrir couldn't hold it in any longer. Odin didn't try to stop him, curiously. Perhaps he didn't anticipate Fenrir's actions. Perhaps he didn't wish to escape. Finding himself torn apart in the giant wolf's jaws, he had time for one thought.

I couldn't stop it. Ragnarok has indeed befallen the universe.

~*~

Mayura ignored the world around her, which had turned dark and violent. She had no care for what happened to the being who possessed her, no care to understand what it was all about. Through her tears and anguish, only one remained in her eyes.

She crawled weakly over to Loki, who now lay still. She had to reach him. She had to heal him. She had promised him that barely minutes ago.

I'll take care of you. Don't worry, we'll go home and solve mysteries and drink Yamino-kun's delicious tea and his wonderful cookies and...

She had reached Loki's body and collapsed over it, breathing hard.

I had always loved you...even when you told me about your real form...your real life.

Tears overcame her and she wept, still not wanting to believe.

Memories overcame her and she was thrown into an image of Loki when she first met him. Half-smiling she remembered crouching down so she would be on the same level. She asked if he really could be a detective when he was so young. She remembered meeting Thor, Fenrir, sneaking into Loki's room, how upset he was, all those moments when she didn't remember what had happened during the last few hours, and searching throughout town for a missing Loki, and finally...finally learning of his secret.

She felt a force pushing against her, interrupting her memories, and gasped.

There was still hope!

She struggled to help him lean against the lighting rod.

"Loki-kun...Loki-kun we need to get out of here. We need to...to see if anyone needs our help tomorrow. There is so much more..." Mayura almost completely broke down when she saw that it was useless.

Loki looked at her. He couldn't talk. He wouldn't. Not anymore. He had to use his last remaining strength to do something to make sure she understood.

Mayura gasped, but didn't pull back. She felt his hands on her face, his hands caressing her hair, his lips on hers. She melted into his arms now, her tears falling freely on Loki's cheeks.

He closed his eyes and pulled her close to him.

My last breath...It's all I can give you Mayura. Please forgive and remember me...

My most treasured...