Author's Note-I wanted to try something a little different with this part of the story and so it may not be the best story I have done but please bear with me and I am sorry if this part is a little strange or off. J but I thought it would be fun to bring in something different to this story and I guess only by trying something new can I learn from my mistakes. Thank you for reading and have a great day!

Part Two-Eric's Recovery

It had been a couple of days since the revelation of the existence of his family's spirit's presence in the humble castle and Sookie's reawakening and recovery. Seeing her still asleep as the sun was setting and knowing that there was nothing that could remotely threaten them here in the Swedish mountains where the castle was tucked in so securely, Eric slid carefully out of the bed where she remained blissfully asleep. How he managed to get any cell phone reception somewhere so isolated was anyone's guess but after making a call home to Shreveport, he was glad he was able to put the fretting Pam's mind at ease. She had been on her way to come back to the castle, to ensure they were both ok. Knowing that they would soon return to the states, she admitted her relief but swore up a blue streak at Eric, reminding him she was not pleased about him waiting days to check in with her. Having made a rare apology to his favorite progeny, he hung up and had let her now they would be coming back within a few days. But that he wanted to give Sookie a little more of a tour of his homeland and as a rare summer storm had kept them inside for the past two days and the weather was much more pleasant this evening, he believed in a hour or so, the two of them would travel to the hot springs where he had taken her once in the past days but she had been unconscious at the time. On the way to that special place, he planned to recount the times of his younger days, and planned to take her to the shores of the North Sea-by air, as it was a longer of a hike than he wished to put her through, even as strong as she was. Wanting to step out of the pleasantly warm castle, Eric stood outside the heavy wooden and metal lined doors of the castle and for a moment, he felt as if he were back in time, back in his own life. But then there came a laugh, a cold laugh that was all too familiar to him.

"You are weak. A failure. A pale imitation of what you were. You'll not every keep her. She only ever had eyes for that Compton fellow, you know." out of the dark appeared someone that the Viking knew was dead having ended him with his own hands. Yet there he was, staring at Russell Edgington himself. "You don't belong anywhere. A vagrant. Misfit."

Furrowing his brow at the apparition, Eric slowly took a few steps back, preferring to return to rest besides the slumbering Sookie. But he instead found trees where he knew the doors leading into his ancestral home should be. Grinning, the apparition shifted, altering its form until another grinning, amused looking figure appeared. Having been immersed in the folklore and legends of his ancestors, Eric knew who this was before him, the descriptions in ancient books all fitting this being to a t. but it was surely not possible, could it be?

"Surely, it is possible. With all the things you have seen and done you still feel ambivalent about the existence of the Norse gods….and yet here one stands before you, to help you through this crisis your father has told me about. You wonder, are you good enough to one day join your family there, where they reside when not here with you, watching over this hallowed ground. And though normally I am the god of mischief, I see a lot of myself in you and wish to help you."

"Loki…..this…..is impossible…"

"As impossible as the visions you saw in the past of your maker Godric? As impossible as your parents and Godric speaking face to face with you recently? You can try to deny what you saw, what you heard and as the one inside your castle saw and heard as well, then why can't the gods of your people exist? There is a lot of healing within your soul that needs to be done if you ever hope to join those you love in those hallowed grounds. What I can tell you is that all those you have ever cared for, ever loved, have already guaranteed their places in Valhalla-even that fairy girl in the castle. She has become part of your bloodline and she has thus been deemed worthy."

"I can not hope to go anywhere but purgatory. I am damned because of what I am…" the Viking said bitterly. "I haven't regretted allowing myself to being made what I am, for I have been able to live a hundred lifetimes, travel…..see the world. But as far as the afterlife, I see nothing for me but the darkness I have been doomed to live in for a thousand years. So why not an eternity of it?" and that he was speaking so bluntly, so freely about things he would revel to few people in his life gave him pause, to realize that this figure before him was indeed powerful. "You're doing something to me….to reveal-"

"Like you would ever tell me freely. Though you have a legacy of being stoic, emotionless and to put it bluntly, ever the Viking, you have a vulnerability that was brought back into you and no doubt it is because of the girl with you. Tell me, do you regret that she brought humanity back into you, that she cracked that facade you so proudly display of being smug. Arrogant. Unfeeling? Tell me that you hate that she has done that to you." Loki folded his hands over his chest, awaiting a response he already knew was coming.

"I regret that…..I reveal my weaknesses….that I fear being seen as weak. As a failure." Eric reluctantly replied. "But I thank her for giving me back something I thought I didn't want. But what I needed. Humanity. I still think of myself as being great but also as a monster, something that doesn't deserve love and as much as I think I can, I wonder if what I give is enough. To my family, to Sookie. Can I ever truly love those who aren't myself? I admit I believe myself superior to humans and make no apologies. I am better than I ever was as a human and yet, part of me regrets the life I could have had if not for that murderous night when my loved ones were taken from me." Eric felt oddly at ease with the god before him and though part of him hated being so candid, he had also never felt more attuned to his ancient heritage.

The god said nothing as he vanished. Confused for a moment, Eric looked around for the trickster god, wondering what was up his sleeve. Then he heard his voice calling out from the darkness. "To prove yourself worthy of your loved ones, the afterlife, you must prove your worth against the past that haunts you. Only in healing can you ever hope to find peace in the afterlife that you hope for You must learn to forgive yourself for things out of your control and so too must you defeat the doubts within you. Shall we begin?" the voice of the god asked. "Brace yourself, Viking. The first of the three tests comes now."

In a defensive stance, he looked around, waiting for…well, whatever the god had in store for him. And it was then that the ghosts of his past came before him, images of those long dead and gone. It was not his parents, not his maker, but the one person he felt he had failed. That he couldn't have saved her from the gruesome death that she had suffered. And though he was glad to see the face of his sister again, he was also reminded that she was as dead as she ever was, that he had been unable to stop the deranged doctor from injecting her with hep-v, forced to watch as the fatal injection was doled out.

"Hello Eric." Nora said, her sweet smile still as radiant as it was in life. "I was summoned here to speak to you. I want you to stop blaming yourself. I know you never wanted what happened to happen. That the god brought me here to see you…time is short if you are to pass this first test….can you forgive yourself? Because I never have blamed you for what happened to me. You gave me a long existence in which I was able to see and do so much more than I ever would have as a human. You know that when you first met me I was near death….you gave me life. Centuries worth of it. And I love you for it.'

But the pain in the face of the Viking was great, he could not bring himself to look at her, though he went to a knee before her. "if I hadn't been as brash and reckless as I was, you wouldn't have been in the danger you had been in….."

"It was Steve Newlin who told them all about you and your own…..that information was powerful and it took little effort to find me out. Those people were devious, you know that. The governor had his ways to get anything he wanted…" Nora sighed as she looked down onto her brother, seeing the red tears that were falling. "You will never live fully unless you let go of the guilt…..of the pain. I want you to know I am in a good place, with your family….our family…that I was brought here tonight to help you see that I am well, that I am at peace. That there is not a shred of anger I feel towards you."

He pursed his lips and finally looked up at his sister. "I had dreams….of seeing you trapped and over and over again it repeated, seeing you injected with that crap. And then I saw you did in my arms. Time and time again…and you look…..good." he paused as he met her tearful gaze. "Are you truly happy, at peace?"

"I am not alone, I am with your family, as Loki told you. Your family-all of it-will await you if and when your time here is done. And I see you going on for quite some time. I do not ask you to forget about me but instead I want you to go forward with the new life you have in front of you. She loves you more than anything, you know." Nora said as she placed a ghostly hand upon her brother's cheek. Though she was without substance, he still felt a pleasant warmth where she had touched him. He got to his feet and looked down on her as she looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "We shall be together again but not for some time. The question that remains, is that have you forgiven yourself now, let the guilt go?"

He closed his eyes and thought. Having spoken to her, having heard her words, he admitted, he felt lighter. And he said as much to her. "Yes….I think I have forgiven myself…."

"Only by forgiving yourself can she return to Valhalla." a voice said and as he watched his sister's spirit fade and Loki emerge from the shadows. "And so she has returned to the hallowed grounds of your loved ones lost. Are you prepared for the second test?"

"Bring it on." he replied and so the second of the three tests began. And there stood another spirit, one that he had seen many a time over the recent years and had communed with the night before along with his human family. Godric stood there in his simple white tunic and pants, the civilized version of the creature that had turned him a thousand years earlier. And though he bowed to no one, the Viking fell upon his knees to the one that had changed his life so dramatically.

"I know you hadn't expected to meet again so soon. But I have agreed to help you heal, to recover from the guilt you have carried for far too long. That I ordered you to leave me that early morning just before I met the sun….you detested me for that, wished you had the power to overtake me, to bring me to safety before the inevitable. I was ready to end my life, that I had seen and done everything I had ever wanted to do. Yet you remained loyal to me before and after my demise. That you hated yourself for letting me go…even today that eats you up." Godric said as he looked upon his progeny. "I never regretted making you but I do regret that you carry such pain with you and though you may have started letting others in, you still are as stubborn as ever and fear to show or reveal too much. You and I were, and still are family and I know why you couldn't bear losing me."

Jaw clenched, he didn't want to break down any more than he had already with his sister. But he couldn't help it. The pain of his past, all he had kept bottled up, it seemed to be released now, making him seem more vulnerable, fragile, than he had ever felt, even when he was human. "I couldn't bear to lose any more people in my life….that Nora was still out there and I had Pam, it just wasn't the same….even after all the years where we were apart, not once did I ever not fear for your well being, that I wouldn't see you again and when we were finally reunited, it was only a matter of days when you met the sun. I lost not one but two fathers and….." he hung his blonde head and couldn't bring himself to go on. "I should have met the sun with you….instead of letting you go. That Sookie remained with you in the end remains a comfort to me however."

"And in that which you just stated, you find peace. Take that and learn from it. Take what I taught you and teach your own, to try to live peacefully amongst humans as much as possible. I know there are times when violence is necessary but you and I saw the horrors of many a war. Can you tell me you would wish such fates to ensnare the survivors of your family? With leading an example, you can preserve my legacy and keep me with you. But you need to realize that I did what I felt was right for me and that it was never to give you any more pain. That was the last thing I ever wanted for you. I know you harbor anger at me for leaving you…..can you let that anger go to move on with your life, knowing well that your parents and I can come into the walls of the castle should you so desire? That we are all to meet again someday in Valhalla? Let the past be in the past, I want you to find your happiness that has long since eluded you. You have been too long tormented and you passed the first test….can you pass the second?"

There was a drawn out silence as he took in what had been said. And he hated to admit when someone else was right but he knew Godric was wise, even in death and that he had never led him wrong. And it was so that Eric felt that it was time to let go of the past, taking what he had learned from his conversation with his sister and combining it with this conversation. Somehow, he was actually feeling more at peace, less pained. The burdens upon his shoulders lighter than they had been in centuries. "I will not forget any of those who leave me and am grateful that I can confer with you and the others in the walls of my home here. But I do have a life to return to and will not use the castle as a crutch, to rely on you all too much."

"You have passed the second test and I know we shall speak again before you depart for your other home. This will always be your home, a part of you. But to live in the past is to forget the present and to not think of the future and you certainly have much to be appreciating in your life now." and with a nod, Godric vanished and Loki once more reappeared from the shadows, wanting to give a respectful distance for the meetings that had been occurring.

"And with the second test passed, so comes the third and toughest test. And this time I am not bringing forth any spirit of your loved ones. But rather, a realistic illusion of the one person you need to defeat in order to win this test, to assure your position amongst the most elite of your people, to be with your loved ones." Loki gave Eric a knowing look before vanishing into the shadows again, a second figure walking out of the woods. It was like looking into a mirror, yet not, as he watched his Viking era self come within a dozen feet of him, gripping a sword and looking at him smugly.

"Look at you…..once so proud, now…..a shadow of what you once were. Reduced to being some lovelorn pet of someone who once stomped on your heart. What makes you so certain she would not do it again?" Viking Eric looked at the black leather jacket clad Eric who looked shocked at the figure before him. "You were once a threat, one to fear and now…." Viking Eric laughed. "nothing more than a laughing stock…..a television pitchman? That's what you devolved from? Once a proud Viking….." shaking his head, the longer haired Eric smirked. "No greater dishonor to your ancestors would be your acceptance into the hallowed realm of Valhalla. Not until you can defeat accept yourself as you are. Your past and present. There is a reluctance still within you to keep her, to try to have something of a normal life. That you know you want, yet fear. I am the manifestation of the pain of your past, what you think yourself as being. Nothing more than a thug. Incapable of caring for anyone but yourself. You know I am right when I say you know your stubborn pride, arrogance and greed that still lingers in you will be your undoing, taking away all tat you care about. So. Do you wish to try to prove yourself worthy?"

Eric clenched his jaw and brought out his fangs. "There is much more to me now than there ever was. I am not just a barbarian, a thug. I look out for my own."

"Not just yourself?" taunted his other self. "Because deep down, you know that the only one who cares about you is yourself. Stop kidding yourself that anyone or anything could care for you." these words were clearly cutting through the tough exterior of the leather clad Eric, who looked as if he wanted to fight but there was a air of hesitation about him and on his face. He knew there was some truth to these words but that he had changed. but was it really for the better, or would he have been better off had he never met Sookie and had instead remained more cold, more serious? He thought long and hard about how he had once been compared to how he was now. And then, he launched himself at his former self, pinning him down, fangs out. "I am better than I used to me. There's more to me than there was and I an grateful for having gone through the good and the bad to get to where I am today. There are and will always be some regrets but I still would never return to being what I was before if given the chance." and taking a nearby stick in hand, he staked his former self, who smiled in approval.

"You have passed the final test." he said before vanishing into nothingness leaving a slightly agitated Eric in his wake. Getting up, he found Loki clapping slowly, almost sarcastically.

"Well done, not that I am surprised in the outcome but the test needed to confirm what was thought. That you are indeed worthy. And that you needed to come to the realization that you are certainly not damned to hell. Or purgatory. And so I leave you with well wishes for the future and perhaps someday we may meet again."

"Preferably a long, long time from now." replied Eric, with a smirk. "And I don't usually say this…but thank you. For helping me see that I am not as removed from my old life as I feared I was. That I have a place awaiting me if I do eventually meet my demise."

Loki nodded. "This is where I leave you….return into your home and remember all that you have experienced this night. And remember you are worthy of more than the afterlife." there came a light and the vampire found himself standing at the foot of the bed where Sookie was starting to stir. The voice of the god could be heard so subtly in the Viking's ear. "You are worthy of her as well." and then the presence of the god was gone completely and he silently gazed at her as she snuggled deeper under the thick blankets. Wandering through the home he once shared with his family, he came to the hall where they had been slaughtered. And it was there that they appeared to him again, his parents and Godric.

"You did well…..I knew you would make it through the tests and now you can rest easier, knowing you will not, as you secretly feared, be damned should you meet your end." his father said with a proud smile. "That you faced down your doubts, fears and regrets and defeated them soundly proves of your worthiness, something we have never doubted for a moment, even after your mother and I watched you from afar, after Godric here saved you from death. That you became something of a fearsome legend, we always knew there was goodness within you even still and here today you stand, having passed the test of none other than Loki himself."

"We are proud of you and know your time here is soon to be ended. That you are to return to your other home saddens us but we will always be here, should you ever wish to summon us to you." his mother said, his baby sister in her arms.

"You represent the best of both of your worlds, human and vampire and you now know that. Go be with her and make certain that you never lose faith in what you two have. The uniqueness you both share is indeed miraculous and so we leave you. For now." Godric added and the three spirits faded away, leaving Eric to ponder everything they said, everything that had happened this night. Shaking his head incredulously, he managed a peaceful smile before he took care to not disturb Sookie as he slid into bed beside her. But she opened her eyes and looked at him appraisingly.

"What's wrong? You look…..I don't think I have ever seen you look so relaxed…so peaceful."

He took her hands and over the next half hour, told her of what he had seen, experienced. And all the while, from the hallowed ground he and his entire family would arrive in, the spirits looked upon him with love in their hearts, tears in their eyes. It had taken ten centuries but it seemed that the fiercest of the fierce had finally found peace. And for that, they spirits were grateful. Almost as grateful as the Viking himself.

The End