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Thanks to Cheryl for the beta help!
Chapter II: Freyja
"You're Gabriel." That was me saying that. Sam, of course, had worked it out the second Gabriel spoke to him in Enochian. "Loki?"
"Very impressive," Gabriel said, smiling. It wasn't a nice smile. "Slow, but impressive. As for why I want you, that should be obvious. I just met Thrymr."
Sam looked like he understood and didn't like what he was hearing.
It pisses me off when he does that.
"What?" I demanded. "How about a summary for the people who actually had a life in high school and didn't take Cryptic Conversations 101?"
Sam glanced at me. "Thor's hammer – this hammer – is missing. In this time. I have no idea when we are exactly, but a long time ago. Thrymr is a jötunn –"
"Sam."
"A supernatural bad guy. He has Mjölnir and he'll return it only if Freyja –"
"Goddess of Beauty?" I asked.
Sam rolled his eyes. "So that you know."
"Hey, not my fault if I have my priorities straight. Hot girls are important. Random bad guys are just gonna have to take a number. So what does Freyja need to do for this evil dude? Make the girl of his dreams fall in love with him?"
"Actually," Gabriel – Loki – whatever – interjected, "Thrymr wants to marry Freyja."
"And Loki over here is on his way to explain to Thor," Sam added, shooting Gabriel a nasty look.
"So why does he need us?" I asked.
"That's what I'm trying to find out," Sam said, turning back to Gabriel. "Why do you need us?"
"I have no reason to believe your story," Gabriel pointed out. "I can tell you're human, but that doesn't mean anything. For all I know, you stole Mjölnir from Thrymr. We can take it to Thor. He'll know if it's his hammer."
"It is his hammer," I told him. "Just from our time."
"He'll know that, too. Trust me. He loves that hammer like it's his baby."
"Then take the hammer and send us back."
"Can't do that, boy. If it is from your time, we can't have two Mjölnirs at the same time. If they were ever used against each other… Well. Let's just say we don't want that to happen or your time might never exist. I'll have to send it back, and I can't send it through time by itself. Someone from your time will have to take it back." Gabriel crossed his arms and glared. "If you know who I am, you know we can do this the hard way."
Sam glared right back. "Believe me, there is nothing you can do to me that your brothers haven't already done and done worse."
Awesome, Sam. Distract me by saying things that make it impossible for me to think beyond the fact that someone hurt my baby brother. That's going to get us out of this.
"You need me to send you home," Gabriel said.
"How do we know you will do that if we help you?"
"Haven't you been paying attention, insect? If you're telling the truth, this version of Mjölnir has to go back to your time and I can't send it by itself. You and your short friend are part of the deal."
"Fine," Sam said, grimacing and not even bothering to point to Gabriel that I'm not short. "Let's get this over with."
"One thing." Gabriel dropped a hand to Sam's forehead and held it there for a second. Then he came to me and did the same thing. It gave me a slight jolt, but I didn't feel any different. "Archangels have the gift of tongues," he explained. "Now you can understand Norse. Saves me having to translate if Thor loses his temper."
I didn't feel reassured.
Thor was huge. I mean, huge. Ifelt intimidated at the sight of him, and I'm a guy who's shared a room with Sam Winchester for most of my life. Sam looked intimidated at the sight of him, and he is Sam Winchester.
Thor had at least a foot (a freaking foot) on Sam. Bright yellow hair even longer than Sam's. Unlike Sam, he had a full beard and moustache, probably in an attempt to look manly.
He didn't need it. Even without the facial fuzz, the bulging muscles would have precluded any attempt to call him a girl. He was more ripped than Sam when he was soulless.
I really needed to stop comparing Thor to Sam. That was the kind of thing that led to disaster, because if I kept equating Thor with a souped-up version of Sammy, I'd wind up assuming that he was as stupidly gentle as Sammy, too. And that would get us both killed.
The fact that Thor wasn't Sam was brought home to me when Sam, who'd recovered enough to be steady on his feet, was swept off them for the second time that day when Thor saw the hammer in Sam's hand, seized him and started to shake him like a dog worrying a rat. This was despite the fact that Gabriel had gone in earlier to explain.
"Let him go," I growled. I had no idea what I could do against that, but I was tired of people manhandling Sam.
Sam dropped the hammer. Thor caught it, releasing his grip on Sam.
This time I was prepared. I had my shoulder under Sam's arm before he could even begin to stagger. Sam buried his head in the crook of my neck. That alarmed me. It wasn't like the kid to be clingy in public. "Sammy? You OK?"
"He can have the freaking hammer," Sam gasped. "He can have all the freaking hammers in the entire freaking world. Just get us out of this."
"I'm on it." I pushed Sam behind me. "Hey. Thor." Thor looked at me, all glittering blue eyes and mask of fury, and I softened my tone a little. Only a little, because the son of a bitch had been bullying Sammy. "So? Satisfied that we didn't steal your hammer?"
Thor glared at me. "This is Mjölnir. Mjölnir in the future, yes, but Mjölnir."
"So… This isn't your hammer?" Gabriel interjected carefully.
"Were you not listening to me?" Thor asked. "Am I, perhaps, speaking Phoenician? This is Mjölnir."
"From the future," Gabriel said. "So it's not your Mjölnir."
"Mjölnir is always mine."
"Yes, of course. I would never dream of suggesting otherwise. I just mean that this hammer must be returned to its time and we must recover the present Mjölnir from Thrymr."
"Where did you get it?" Thor bellowed, turning on us again.
Sam stepped out from behind me. "At an auction." He glanced from Thor to Gabriel and back. "Plutus. I don't know where he got it. Someone – I think it was Vili – bought it. He paid – he killed a virgin. I killed him and took it."
"What is an auction?" Thor said, still loudly enough to be heard at whatever the opposite end of the world from Asgard is, but now more curious than angry.
"It's a place where people sell valuable things to the highest bidder," Sam explained.
"And Mjölnir cost a virgin?"
"Five-eighths of a virgin, actually –"
"Not even an entire virgin?" Thor roared.
"Wow, Sam," I muttered. "Great job not pissing off the guy who can smash us to bits."
"But – but I killed Vili," Sam pointed out to Thor desperately. "When he made the bargain."
"You killed Vili for Mjölnir?" Thor demanded.
"No," Sam said quickly. "No. Sorry – I forgot he was your uncle – and I understand Mjölnir is yours – it was because he killed a girl."
"Sacrificing virgins is frowned upon in your time?" Thor's brow furrowed. "And you would kill to avenge a death sooner than you would kill to gain a weapon like Mjölnir? It sounds like you live in a dull era. What do they call you?"
"My name's Sam. And this is Dean."
"Older brother," I added, just to set the record straight.
"Welcome to Asgard, Sam. Welcome to Asgard, Dean Older Brother. Much as I would like to learn more about your time – and about this Plutus who appears to have stolen Mjölnir and sold it to Vili for the paltry sum of five-eighths of a virgin." Thor looked like the thought physically hurt him. "As though there was a shortage of… However, that is not important now. Loki!"
The last word was spoken in a thunderous voice, and Gabriel hurried forward. "Thor."
"What exactly are Thrymr's terms?"
"He will return Mjölnir to you if the immortal Freyja will consent to marry him," Loki recited in the bored tone of a messenger delivering a singing telegram.
"Come. We must speak to Freyja."
"Yes, let me just send this Mjölnir and these two men back to the future –"
"No!" Thor snapped. "They stay until I have Mjölnir."
"But –"
"What if I need something to beat Thrymr with until he returns Mjölnir?"
"You wouldn't consider using your fists?" Thor looked horrified and Gabriel sighed. "Why did I even suggest it? Fine. You two – you're on duty."
"What?" I said. "You said you'd send us back!"
"I will. Soon." Gabriel shrugged. "You could come with us to see Freyja. It's worth staying a few more hours for that."
Freyja was –
I'd say she was hot, but that doesn't do her justice. There's no word that does her justice. She was tall – almost as tall as Sam – but so perfectly proportioned that I didn't notice it until I saw how she was towering over Gabriel. There were cascades of golden hair falling down her back, and her eyes…
A man could drown in those eyes.
She wore a dress that clung impossibly tightly to her chest and then tumbled to the ground in easy waves. A pure white cat was curling itself back and forth around her ankles, and another was sitting on her shoulder.
"No," Freyja told Thor coldly.
Feisty, too. Apparently Freyja was just perfect.
Thor didn't try his intimidating voice on her. He just shook his head, leaned forward, and said coaxingly, "Lady Freyja, you must see how important this is to all Asgard. We cannot allow one of the jötunn to have such a powerful weapon."
"Then go to battle with Thrymr and seize Mjölnir from his bloody corpse like the warrior you claim you are," Freyja said contemptuously. "These schemes are games for children."
My kind of girl, this Freyja.
Freyja could apparently read minds, because she glared at me furiously.
"Lady Freyja," Gabriel-Loki tried. "Perhaps –"
"Silence!" She turned her burning gaze on him, and the cat on her shoulder hissed and spat. Gabriel actually shrank back. Freyja turned back to Thor. "If you cannot reclaim your weapon in honest battle as a man should, you do not deserve it."
"Lady Freyja," Thor protested. "It is your duty to – to all Asgard! I know Thrymr is… is…"
"Jötunn scum," Freyja said clearly, her voice ringing through the pillared hall. The cat at her feet gave a full-throated purr of approval, wrapped itself once around her shin, and bared its teeth at Thor.
"Jötunn scum," Thor said placatingly. "I know Thrymr is jötunn scum, a hammer-thief, and foul-smelling to boot. I understand your natural revulsion towards him. But think of what will happen to us if the strongest weapon of the gods is in the hands of –"
"You should have thought of that before you let him steal it!"
"Freyja –"
"I said no!" Freyja yelled, and just like that, the floor and the walls started to shake. One of the necklaces she was wearing glowed red-hot and fell to the ground, where it started to burn a hole in the stone of the flooring. The other two immortal gods didn't look too worried about it – maybe this was normal in Asgard, maybe making earthquakes and melting stone was their equivalent of squeezing a stress ball.
Sam shot me an alarmed look, and I nodded. I agreed with him completely. It was long past time to be gone.
"But it wasn't my fault!" Thor yelled back, making the rafters vibrate. The cat at Freyja's feet hissed and spat at him. "I was asleep! He took it by stealth like a thief in the night!"
"Then you take it back by stealth! How dare you come before me and suggest that I sacrifice myself because you were too stupid to safeguard your own property? They will be laughing at you in Jötunheimr for years. 'Look at the mighty Thor,' they will say, 'who is so ineffectual he cannot even retrieve his fabled weapon from the foolish jötunn Thrymr without help.'"
Thor stamped his foot.
The stone floor cracked.
Before he could start getting really mad, Gabriel stepped between him and Freyja and said, "Wait! Let's at least take this to the others. Maybe someone will have a plan."
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