Here is the next Chapter! I hope you like it! What plans do i have in store now that everything is starting to aline? Well read and find out. Another chapter will be out soon! Let me know what you think, review please!

Till next time

~Triss

Chapter 1

The echo of boots, the sound of metal against marble, they were coming down the hall. Perfect.

This was the time for families to say their last good-byes, before the time of sentencing, the final remarks and truths that are needed to be told before there was either banishment or death… for a moment Loki truly wondered what the All Father would chose. Banishment had before proved his other son in "favorable" character, did he possibly think that it work for his adopted son as well?

The banished prince scoffed at the notion. Odin would give nothing in favor of the poor pathetic creature he'd picked up years ago. It would be a penalty for death. There was no escaping the sentencing…

"You have a visitor." The guards of the Asgard prisons opened his cell.

Even Loki could not hide the small thrill and surprise at the one person who stepped in his cell. Frigga, in all her splendor and grace and with the saddest gaze upon her face had walked in to his cell.

"Loki."

"Mother," He stated, "I'll not lie this is certainly a surprise that you would visit me."

The guards placed a chair for their queen, another he assumed for himself and a small round table. "You are my son, you always will be, and that will not change."

"Ah yes, that is until the sentence for death is decided."

Her face remained as calm as the regel queen that she was. That stance, the calmness that she still retained, perturbed him and it unsettled the very core that he had building deep inside him. Frigga turns to the guards, "If you please."

A guard came in, a board in his arms and a small chest. "Loki do you remember all the days we let go by when we were together? When the All Father and Thor would talk of war and battles. Do you remember what we had done, to pass the time?" Her eyes had taken on a wistful look, of any mother wishing to turn back in time for a brief moment for a memory.

"How could I forget? We had played our own battle on a checkerboard of mind and whit. "

Frigga was already placing the pieces down on the board; the king and queen, the knights with rooks that stood tall, and the pawns that were always the first to be played. Without the pawns you could not set the game, with a man's first moved one could find out his strategies and his ideas. Does he go on the defensive to protect his king and queen? Or does he attack and use everything at his disposal, even the lady that supports the king in all his conquests.

"Play with me once more. For old time's sake?"

The game began it has had always, Frigga would take her white pawn and place it two places ahead, three from the right and as always Loki always placed his pawn only one space forward, a way line away from the battle field. Because it is not just a state of defense and offense, there is also another one, a way to kill fast and strong. Something his mother would always fall for, as the games would play on.

They were silent for a few turns, playing out in the usual way; they were neck in neck in the loss of their pawns. The silence carried over as each piece was carefully picked up and placed in its stop, it served a purpose, every piece had their part to play, just like in everything, just like in life. And if you wanted to win the game, you need to know where all the pawns were to catch the king.

Frigga, as always placed struck out with her knight to seize his pawn, only four spaces from his king. Just as Loki knew she would make this move and quickly snatched the knight and cut him from making his glory. "I am afraid that you became predictable at this game." He claimed taking control of the board.

"Possibly, but perhaps you have relied too much on the chance of predictability to change the strategy should that reliance fail?" She moved another piece forward, the queen, something new to a game that has barely begun to be played.

The foresworn son of Odin scoffed, "One can always win the battle when he knows where all the pieces are. Then he can go for the piece the opponent thinks he would never claim." With his own knight he mercilessly slaughtered the white queen and his mother watched it placed in the graveyard with a steady eye.

"How dedicated should one be to even claim this one piece? How much does he sacrifice his own pieces to get to the king though?"

"It all matters on the dedication," Loki moved his night, taking a spot between two pawns, a safe place for himself, where Frigga cannot touch him without sacrificing her own pieces to catch him, "If you want to win the game hard enough, to be the only King that survives the battle then you must destroy the pawns in your path to take down the other king. His pawns are his weakness, is you are to destroy those that he deems to make one strong then destroy it." By the end Loki was all but spiting out the words through clenched teeth.

It was the first time the shell of the queen, the image of composure and strength, paled, eyes widened and her hand froze over the last surviving rook she had. "Loki what have you done?"

He went silent for a brief moment, looking into the woman who had always be something to him that he could never quite place, what he had thought in his younger years as a other and child bond was something entirely now that he knew it had all been a farce. It had all been a farce, but even he could not deny the feelings welling up, to prove and show those that had laughed and scoffed at him, the shadows that covered him they dared to feed.

For the first time Frigga's calm demeanor was rattled, her fingers could barely contain from shaking. The decisions that were about to be made would be irreversible.

"I am sorry." Loki weathered.

Thor had retreated to a routine that he had recently come to form, starring out into the vast space of life that was never ending. His trips to visit the all-seeing Hemindall were short and brief; it was not his duty to watch after only one single being when there was much to see in the universe. It was not his job, no matter how much Thor wished that he could spend all his time to stand there and here stories of the mortal he left behind as she chased after stars and storms in hopes of catching evidence of him.

Earth time had sped forward through 6 months. And yet her will was still as strong as ever to keep the search for him, never had he found a person, from Asgard or mortal, who had the push she possessed. These feeling for her, when far from anything he had ever felt. It was true that his past held women before, nights of lust and fun. Mead had run free in those days and kept its course long into the days sometimes. There had been a time when Thor had known he would have to take a queen to ascend the throne, the decision would have been made by the past king and queen who would marry Thor. It hadn't truly mattered to him before; the decision would have been made and as had all past would-be kings he would have accepted this. But that was before he met Jane Foster someone strong willed and smart. He had never met a woman like her in all his life.

The women of his past bowed to his will, were flattering and pleasing toward him and his nature, none had found fault with his brutish behavior and questioned his opinion no matter how truly boorish it was. But the mortal was different; she would not tolerate his brute manners and animal behaviors. She did not fear his anger or position, it was a new experience for the prince of Asgard and he embraced it. Never had anything in his life or adventures he had changed him for the better like the young woman who stood up against him. What he found was a friend, a companion, and something that would not his mind alone. She was trapped in his thoughts for as long as he had first met her on the night he had been banished and cast down to earth…. And hit by her vehicle.

But today, for the first time in a long while, his thoughts were not solely on the scientist. Unfortunately, his thoughts were more resounding at home, his brother Loki. After all of the madness that he had caused back in earth Thor knew his brother would not give up the battle for a chance at being king and until his revenge was complete. But how and when his plans would start? Thor knew not.

But there were also the consequences of Loki's actions. Their father, Odin, the All Father had to make the decision. The warlord was now sentenced to death; Asgardian justice would not allow Loki to live after all the horrors and chaos he had caused, not only to Asgard but also to other worlds across the cosmos. It was beyond injustice, perhaps even breaking past evil. This was something more, to break away and disregard all living things.

Today was a day of reckoning, the day when Loki was supposed to be held up to his deeds. How should one feel when the person they have seen as brother all their life is doomed to die? How should you feel when the person you had grown, learned, and battled with for so many years that one does not recognize the person standing next to him. Thor could not go and say his lasts farewells; his words would have gone on to deaf ears just like all the other times in the past. Does Loki not see all the pain that he had caused? Or did he ignore all of life to be able to exact what he truly wanted?

"Brooding will do you ill well." The All Father, in all his might and glory came up alongside his son. Staring off into the vast worlds around them, "Times like these I wish myself I was not the ruler nor responsible for these choices."

" I do not question your decisions Father. I know why you have made these choices, though it does not mean that I have to welcome what is to come. Loki had always been my brother; I thought nothing less of him. Then all that has come to happen has altered the sibling that I have grown up with." He gazed over at his father, hoping that there would be some reasoning, some explanation for everything. "I am torn between what I must do and what I must contend with in the means of my family."

"My son, being a King must mean that you must do what is best for the people of your home, perhaps sacrificing your family in its stead. What you want does not always mean you can have what you would want in life. There are many a things that I wish I could have done, but I know that I had made the right decision for my people. Even now my decisions are for the people, for the other lives that are throughout this universe. Even your mortal benefits from the choice I have made. Yet that does not quell the feeling in my heart at this decision. "

In the past there has been very little that the two had agreed on, many of them revolving around the years when Thor's only goals in life had been to be King and have true power. But now, when there was not much longer till the crown was to be past, both knew the decisions and the sacrifices that came with this power, the struggles they had to fight. Would Thor ever be able to stand even in the same shadow that was his father?

"My Lords! Please, come quickly, there has been an incident!" A guard from the lower cells came running at them, an armor that was once polished and buffed was now scorched and ripped at.

"What has happened?! " Thor had already summoned his hammer to his side, a powerful weapon with no equal. Something inside him, told Thor that he would need it.

The guard paled, "Loki has escaped! He used a time when the guards were not present in his cell…. And the queen…"

"What of the queen?! What has happened?" Odin's voice was barely above a whisper, yet even in that sense there was menace and hate behind it.

The solider tried quickly to gather himself in the presence of two fearsome warriors, "Loki had used his opportunity of final words to attack and escape his cell. He used the queen as a way to distract the guards. The queen was injured, we had to move from the cell quickly, the cursed fire he was consuming everything with it! Our first priority was to get to the queen—"

He began to ramble, afraid as he saw the intent that was forming in their eyes. He chased after them as they took off, each with their signature weapon in hand, sword and hammer, each their own deadly weapon, each a force to kill. The further they spilled into the castle, running through the catacombs, they could head the words of chaos building thought them. The soldiers that careened through the tunnels, trying to stop a fire they had no control over, all while trying to cover and protect their queen from more harm.

"I will take care of the fire. You try and find Loki, he cannot escape from this, find him before he leaves! He will not go without punishment on this." Odin's voice thundered over the shouts of others, the fire that blazed, there was more fury in his eyes than the fire that ate at everything.

Thor flew into the tunnels, weaving through the labyrinth trying to find him. It was not long; the magic that Loki produced was a star guiding the God of Thunder to his only brother, the one that was quickly destroying everything in his path. He was becoming more and more of a monster.

There stood Loki, billowing as a wormhole was slowly forming in front of him. A staff Thor had insured would remain kept from his brother at all cost and a look in his eyes with utter determination. The same look that he had seen on his brother when they were playing games as children. One that was filled with determination and one that had always insured that he won.

"Loki!" Thor bellowed above the hail of wind that pushed against him. His brother turned toward him, more haggard, dark circled and crazed then he had ever seen his brother. His heart wrenched. "Loki, stop this madness! Enough of this! Look what you have done!"

"I have done what I have need to in order to ensure my future brother! I am fulfilling all that I was mean to!"

Thor struggled against the battling winds, "How much destruction are you will to cause for yourself!? What of Mother? You ignore her well being for your own needs? What would be king would do sacrifice his own to ensure himself? Enough of this turn yourself over. Please I beg of you!"

"And then what happens? I will be sent to the gallows! Your father would not let this go by—it would be cowardice if he were to leave alive. The weak king that he is, a fool of an old man! You, brother, ask me to give up my life so that things shall be easier."

Thor could not answer because what answer is there to give? What choice did he have and what could he say to change Loki's view? "I beg of you brother, do not do this!"

His brother laughed, "You shall see me, not long into the future, you shall see me. Of that I promise."

With that Loki threw himself into the void, lost before Thor could reach him. A fear now wedge in his heart about what hi brother would now do that he was free and power was now at his disposal. It seemed that there would be more thing he would have to lose, a battle he was not looking forward to fighting.

What disaster would his brother now unleash?