"The Tale of the Huntress"
CHAPTER NINE
Loki's head was splitting. Deep, deep inside his brain, deep in his heart.
But he knew.
That sense of not right that he'd felt since he was a small child was gone. That sense of not belonging, of different, of feeling off had vanished with the rush of memories set free.
He had known of Hela. He had known of his heritage. They both had; of course they did… Thor would have been there when he was brought home. Hela had been vanquished when Thor was small. But the memory had been lost to them because Freya had been there.
She'd always been there.
Removing her had removed his life.
He shuddered at what he now knew, at the memory of her desperate fight to save them. The fear he'd felt afterwards, the fear of the cold and ice that Skadi had instilled in him. He remembered how his father had been gone for most of a year, hunting Ice Wolves, hunting a rogue band of Huntresses, till every single one had been destroyed. He hadn't understood then, as a child. His father was king, and he often had to hunt dangerous creatures or stop bad people.
But now he knew.
The Avengers were crowded around them, worry etched deep in the lines of their faces. Loki sat up, shifting on the couch cushions where he'd been carefully laid, and the shift made his head rush and pound. He groaned, and gently rested his face in his hands.
"Hey, you okay?" A giant green hand touched him, enormous fingers feeling the pulse at his wrist.
"I am fine." Loki breathed, lowering his hands and blinking.
"Did it work?" Steve asked, voice tight with controlled concern.
Loki nodded. "Yes." There was a pause, and he looked up, meeting their eyes. "She told the truth."
It took a while, but he told them what he now remembered, of what little he knew of the Ice Queen, dredging up the little information he remembered from his young years. As he did so he watched his brother with rising concern. Thor was laying on the next couch. Still. Limp. He hadn't moved once, and by the time Loki was done describing the Ice Queen's powers ("So basically she's an evil Elsa." Tony had quipped), he was frantic.
He'd remembered so much more. Understood so much more. It was amazing the difference a few years could make when one was young, but there it was. The block in his mind had been deeply imbedded, thick and fused in, never meant to be removed. Breaking Thor's block had, in turn, broken his own, but now he was afraid… oh, how he was afraid.
"He's fine," Banner insisted when Loki checked him for the umpteenth time. "I mean, there's nothing physically wrong with him."
"Not that your scanners can see, no."
They were silent, glancing at each other. Loki had explained what he had done, why the blocks had been put there in the first place. "He protected me." Loki murmured, his hand on his Thor's forehead. "He hid me so I wouldn't see. I cannot imagine…" But that wasn't true. He was grown now, he had years and years of experiences. He could imagine what must have happened, could imagine what had caused the awful sounds he'd heard, and he was grateful his eight-year-old self hadn't had to witness most of it.
And he'd made Thor remember.
He thought of his sister. His older, strong sister. Of the way the air bent to her forcefields, obeying her will. How she could move things with a thought, blast anything with the most beautiful white light he'd ever seen, shooting it from her hands. How he liked matching his footsteps to hers whenever he followed her through the palace, because her feet made the stone warm. Outside the grass would crackle and blacken beneath her steps. She always smelled of warm, spicy smoke.
She had died protecting them.
Hot, molten anger filled his chest, pooled down into his belly, ran out through his limbs and into the tips of his fingers and toes.
But she wasn't dead. She'd been thrown forward, just as he had, only so much farther.
She was still trying to protect them.
And Skadi was trying to take her again.
The mountain where they'd camped was still there. The paths were long gone, and the trees and plants were vastly different, but the waterfall was there, and the river, cut more deeply into the earth. The clearing where they'd made their camp was covered with berry bushes and weeds, empty and clean of the horrific tragedy that had happened here.
Freya crouched down and ran her hand over some wild yellow flowers, her eyes glowing still, her heart and mind calm. She supposed she should be concerned that she was so calm, but the thought left her as soon as it arrived, flitting through and away like a butterfly.
She waited.
Skadi would find her, she knew. And this time it would be on her terms.
They were away from people, where they could hurt no one.
Here… where it had begun.
It was a fitting place.
Time had no meaning to her, running as fluidly as the river behind her, so Freya did not know how long she waited before a voice spoke.
"I told you."
She turned and faced the white demon. "You did."
"Won't you come to me now? I won't turn you away. I remember you. I want you."
"Where have you been?" Freya whispered. They had said her animals were extinct, and they had never heard of her. She'd said she'd suffered, but it was only now that she was making her appearance.
Skadi's eyes darkened, and she lowered her arms from their outstretched, welcoming stance. "Reclaiming what was mine."
Freya waited.
"I came through ten years ago. My children, my daughters, my huntresses – they were gone. Long dead. By Odin's hands." Skadi's voice shook with emotion, with rage. "But no one remembered anything. No one knew my name, knew anything of what had happened all those ages ago. We had been wiped clean of Asgard's history, you and I, and I had nothing left. I wanted to cut out Odin's beating heart. But I was weak. I found my old home in the wastes of Jotunheim, long fallen into ruin, but I fixed it. I grew stronger. I traveled, and I found the remains of my once mighty Wolves." She smirked, her red lips twisting. "Odin was very thorough, but he missed just enough. One mating pair, hidden far. They had grown into a wild, small pack, but it was enough. And my alphas remembered me. With my help they have grown strong again, and now that you are here, and Asgard is gone, we can begin again. Together. You, my Huntress, and I – your queen."
Freya tilted her head, crimson hair slipping over her shoulder, and the corner of her mouth lifted. "Oh, Skadi." She murmured, and the light in her eyes grew, till they blinded even the Ice Queen. "I am not here to join you." The wind began to blow. Her hair danced behind her, like the flames of a great fire, and she lifted her hands. "I'm here to kill you."
Skadi's face fell, her eyes widening. "You fool."
"You think I would join you? It is not they who have abandoned me. It was you who took me away." The light began to glow from the palms of her hands. "My brothers still live, and that is enough for me."
The shrieking, white blast streaked towards Skadi, who threw up a shield of ice. The shards burst everywhere, but behind it came spears of ice, shooting straight for Freya. They shattered against the forcefield, the air bending in front of her, and Freya ducked and rolled. A log followed the motion of her hand and flew through the air, dirt and pebbles and bark raining from it. Skadi threw up her hands, a glittering wave of ice freezing upward and catching the log in the froth, freezing solidly over it, and then stilling.
Freya smacked her hands together with a cry, and the ice wave exploded. Skadi barely missed being impaled, ducking and rolling away to the safety of a tree. She turned glittering, furious eyes on Freya, who felt the familiar warmth running through her, through her limbs, into her mind. Consuming her.
And she let it.
