Chapter 10

Allie need only release the giant of one of his bonds with her makeshift key; Surtr tore himself free from the wall with the movement of one hand, his muscles tensing and the embers scattered across the cobbled ground glowing like angry stars in the night sky. The ground shook as his body fell to the hard floor, cracking the stone and sending puffs of dirt and smoke into the air, swirling around Allie and making her eyes water and itch, a cough rising in her throat as she stepped back from his body.

The wicked laughter spewing form his mouth sent Allie's spine to fidgeting and her skin to gooseflesh. It was a laugh of joy, menacing in its promise. Allie could scarcely see the blackened teeth and gums as the embers turned once more to flames, intensify to blue whips that licked at her face and wrapped around her feet and legs like animal traps. When the laughter stopped and the giant began to straighten his crumpled body panic made Allie's face pink, her eyes wide, palms glistening with sweat. He was easily four feet taller than her, his body bulging with well-toned muscles despite his age. The juxtaposition between the time-ravaged face and the perpetually healthy body was fear inspiring.

His head was slightly tilted downward to study the girl, the foolish creature who had released him from his bonds. He noticed her slight trembling and, as he stepped towards her, her utter fear of him. His body creaked wretchedly as he bent down, palm held out, his hand big enough to grab Allie and crush her with a mere twitch of a single clubbed finger. "The deal, little one." His voice boomed despite the sugar coated tone it held. It was clearly false and meant to be degrading towards the girl but her face was now strong and mean, slightly relaxed as she managed to put up one small finger and wag it at his demand. Allie could fee her heart facing with the thrill of lying, pounding in her chest as her head became dizzy with excitement.

The anger that boiled through Surtr was clear, the veins in his hand becoming gorged, protruding from his flesh like small mountain ranges. Allie could only shrug and try in vain to hide a smile, amusement over the Jotunn's inability to mask the most basic of emotions. "I am not going back on my word, Surtr. I promised you the sword and you'll get it. But only once you are securely placed on Midgard." The Jotunn grit his teeth audibly in frustration, clearly at the fact that his intentions had been so clear. He had been far too easy to read and it was his weakness to be so.

"And how am I to get there little one? Are you so dim as to not have noticed the binding of my powers?"

"And are you too dim to notice the binding of my own? I never agreed to do all of the work. You figure out how to get there." Allie's heart raced, full of giddy pride. She had deceived him so easily it made her feel like she was back to the person she used to be before this degrading suppression was placed over her. And even though Loki had not truly acted out his contract she could feel it constantly, like her soul being wrapped around his finger like cheap twine. She could feel the need to go farther with her taunting but she denied it with every fiber of will she owned, instead twirling on her heel like a young child and walking , almost skipping, out the door, closing it with a resounding clack in Surtr's face.

Surtr could hardly believe the disrespect the child had shown him. He intended to crush her, to make her scream in agony as his hands forced whatever mock form of life she had stowed within her small body out. But a grin crawled across his face regardless of his anger. He was free and passage to Midgard was an easy assignment; there is always a back door.

Loki watched as the reflections of the torches danced across the walls and the floor, playing with the light like a small child by making shapes and movements with his hands. The shadows would grow and crawl across the walls and stretch to great length at which point he would clench his hand like a claw and watch the pointed fingers scratch at nothing.

The sudden thundering of his brother's voice pulled Loki out of his mind and back into reality, the transition being both painful and unwanted. Too many thoughts filled his head for him to be preoccupied with Thor's idiocy. He had been yelling since the early hours of the night and the sun was now beginning to rise.

"Are you listening to me Loki?" His voice was raspy and strained.

Without looking directly at Thor Loki mumbled his response, trying simply to keep whatever conversation they were having intact so that it may soon end. "Of course I'm listening." His tone was distant and Thor noticed his brother's vacant expression , one he wore only when he was mulling over some great quandary.

This response was similar, if not identical, to all of the responses Loki had given that night. Thor felt like he was being disregarded and thrown away, his importance having been stripped away by Loki's unwillingness to hear his argument. An argument about Aloise.

Thor had been scolding his younger brother about his immature conduct; if Loki was worthy of his maintaining his station of prince in Asgard he had not shown it. In Thor's mind the only way for Loki to regain his honor would be to rot in a dank, cold cell. But how could he wish such a thing? Thor turned, moving his body towards one of the great windows that flanked the farthest wall of the room, placing a good ten yards between himself and Loki, who had been sitting calmly in a chair, seldom moving.

"How could you take advantage of a child brother? How can you sit there without a worry in your mind about her, about the injustice behind her being held captive and her being punished for your crimes?" There was a twinge in his voice, a place in his speech where disgust and hatred replaced curiosity and pity. It was a momentary slip but it was still painful for Loki to hear.

"I am in awe, brother, of how little it is you know sometimes. She is not a child and she is far from possessing the innocence you seem to think she holds within her." His thoughts flicked back to her face, red with a deep blush and her mouth hung open in a silent cry.

"But that is far from the point Loki! You have been sulking, holing yourself in your chambers and acting like a spoiled child while someone that holds power and knowledge far beyond our understanding waits for her life to end! You have not even taken advantage of her situation, an act that would be horrid but far better than her current situation!" This was an especially winded speech for Thor and he began to feel his limbs shake with fatigue and frustration. There were times when he felt that he and his brother were worlds apart even when they were seated inches form another. It made his chest ache with loss.

Loki raised one eyebrow, questioning his brother's logic. How would torturing her have been better? He was already playing with her mind and her body, pulling her strings slightly but still enough to garnish a reaction. He liked his game much more than he would ever have enjoyed a simple back and forth such as the one Thor had been expecting. A thought came to mind as Loki realized the possibility of weakness hidden within his brother's outrage. "And what would you do in my situation brother? Would you have let her go, let her continue to pillage and murder unsuspecting humans? Would you tell her to leave so that she may grovel before her Death, pleading for just one more taste of a mortal soul?" The smirk on Loki's face was mocking and unforgiving but when his brother turned away from it and remained silent he stood and walked towards the door, opening it partially before turning his neck slightly back and calling , "If she really wanted to she could void our contract and leave. Anything that happens to her, even at my hands, is entirely her choice." The door slammed shut with might that shook the frame which held it to the wall.

Allie had not gotten around the corner before two guards had grabbed her by the arms and lead her to the throne room where Odin had been patiently waiting. His hand had been under his chin, supporting his head, as he stared out at the rising sun, the black sky turning a striking shade of midnight blue, stars still visible and blinking out in space.

Allie could see that the Allfather's mind was burdened with something heavy and serious and she felt her back stiffen and her mind clear of any ill-conceived jabs she might have taken had Odin not looked so pensive. Frigga was standing beside her husband, hands resting lightly on one of his arms. When she looked up and saw Allie and the guards entering she bowed to her husband and, gathering her skits as to avoid stumbling, walked out of the room. As she walked past Allie she gave a shy and sheepish smile, her face clouded in worry just like her husband. Allie returned the smile but suddenly felt very aware of her disheveled appearance. Her hair felt ratted and wild and her clothing was still damp in spots. She suddenly thought about her feet, curling her toes inward as she realized that the soles of her feet must be filthy after having been bare for weeks.

Allie felt his eyes fall on her, like a large slap against her back making her jump forward slightly as if being slightly electrocuted. Odin removed his hand from under his chin and, straightening his pose, waving the two men holding Allie away, their boots clacking audibly to the door and around the corner. The freedom felt strange as a slight tingling where there hands had once been, spreading into her hands and making them feel numb, like appendages do when they have been slept on.

Allie's body was stuck, refusing to move as Odin stood and came closer to her, his staff in his hand and his brow furrowed. He stopped, leaving a large gap between their bodies. The empty space was somewhat haunting and showed Allie that she was still not trusted at all.

When he spoke his voice was filled with force and restraint, booming and hushed all at the same time, as if speech was an intense struggle for him. "Aloise," He paused after her name left his lips, thinking how he would proceed. Their relationship had always been strained, and for good reason. She was constantly insubordinate and disrespectful and he was forced into a corner by her Master. He sighed his concern renewed, for her Master was exactly the problem. "I must ask you why it is you have come here. Your sudden…intrusion has caused my wife and myself to become uneasy. We fear for our son and for you as well."

Allie could no longer hold her tongue. "You fear for him? No, you should simply forget him. And as for your concern for me it is unwelcomed Allfather." Her voice was scornful but she had not intended it to be so. It was as if she had no control over her emotions or her speech and she felt her head become light and distant. The room was spinning and she felt her body sway as she spoke, her feet adjusting as she tried to maintain her balance. The hall was becoming distorted and dark as she consciously fought back against the Other. His hands were wrapping around her head, gripping tightly to her mind. But she fought him back. The blackness faded away, but never disappearing totally.

The concern was written on Odin's face as he reached forward and rested a hand on Allie's shoulder. It was difficult even for him to despise her at that moment when it was so clear that she was beyond salvation. She had dug herself far too deep for anyone to help her. "Aloise what is it that draws you two together? What force could bind you so strongly to my son?"

Allie faced the floor, no longer being able to stand the outpour of pity and confusion pouring from the Allfather's eyes. "You know exactly what has forced me to him." Her voice was a whisper, slight with resignation.

A small sound echoed from his mouth, a small hum of amusement. He had not meant the bond of the contract. His grip on her shoulder tightened slightly, as if he were afraid she might be swept away if he did not anchor her to the spot. "Do not laugh." She pleaded, the sound barely getting past her lips. "If I had not been told to come here I would not have. The only satisfaction that I could possibly gain is the fact that I ended your son's misery by tearing the life from his body." She had not dared to look up as she spoke, knowing that her words would surely aggravate the man standing before her.

The small chuckle that broke the short silence that had followed her outburst forced her eyes to migrate upwards, slow and ashamed, as it resonated through her mind that he had laughed at her reason for living. Her mouth was hanging open in shock and her breath was caught in her throat for a moment as she watched his smiling face turn and walk back towards his throne. He turned to her when he reached the first steps. A small grin was still etched on his face, his eye shining brightly with some form of content. "You are more naive than you think." His voice was once again thunderous and the sudden roar in his voice made Allie's skin jump, her nerves pulling tightly together and gathering at her lungs.

"Don't mock me! I may be a monster but even I deserve respect Odin!" Her body was shaking and sweat was gathering in her palms. She was far too aggravated for the Other to take advantage of her mind, her body coursing with indignant rage at his sudden demotion of her intelligence.

"I am not mocking, "He cooed gently as if to some small bird he held in his hand, as if weighing the possibility of crushing it, "I am just stating that your hate could not exist without some form of emotional connection to Loki. Hate may only thrive where there once was a strong and undying love."

"And you think that he is the god of lies? I have never heard such vulgar falsehoods in my entire life until I spoke with you." She was fuming and she could feel the heat rising in her face, up from her chest and neck until it reached her cheeks, making them blush. Her eyes were trying to burn a hole through Odin's chest, they were searing with tears of anger.

"Your own master has lied to you far more cruelly than I ever could dream to. Can you feel it? It's hidden in the fabric of your flesh and in the electricity that makes your warped mind function. Can you remember that first lie?"

Of course she could.

Five hundred years was a long time but it was not quite long enough for the memories to be extinguished from Allie's mind. Not completely anyway. She could feel the air flying around her, the cold blast of air burning her cheeks and nose in the way only subzero temperatures can. It was strange, though, she could feel her stomach in her throat as if falling, and she could feel her body spinning as it fell, as if it had been tossed form some great height.

The only other sensation that she could feel were the delicate arms as they wrapped around her torso, holding her up but only just, her feet bending oddly as if being dragged against the ground, her neck lolling to and fro. Her eyes were closed and every movement and touch was out of context, confusion warping her perception of every nerve ending in her body. She could barely think, and she could feel her lungs fighting against the air she sucked in, her entire chest feeling like one large cramp, vibrations of pain making her fingers spasm. The darkness was all consuming, even though the darkness came from inside herself.

She heard a voice, warm and comforting, brush against her ear, through her hair and into her brain as it wrapped around her. "My poor fallen girl. It must be so hard to fall for so long and from so far."

She could only reply with a grunt, and even that was cut short by slim fingers pressing against her dry and bleeding lips. Her body was slipping and she felt that very soon she would be free of this grip and begin to fall once more. Her hands tried to move to find something to hold but all she could manage was a pathetic twitching of her fingers. "I can help you. I can give you everything you could ever want, and anything you may ever need." The fingers moved from her mouth, down her face and to her stomach, a pool of cold gathering there. "I can make the pain go away. I can stop your falling." The voice was inside of her now, and there was no fighting against it.

The hand moved once again and pressed lightly against her left eye, taping it as the voice spoke again. "I just need one small sign, one small piece of you and I will give you everything." She winced at the touch but there was something inside of her, something building and growing. The blackness that had been consuming her was no longer her own creation, but an intrusion from the world outside, the blackness of the thing that was stopping her plummeting though time and space. There was something inside her that was bad, rotten, and wanted to ruin the peaceful death she had been given.

Her voice was coarse and her throat felt like it was being torn apart as her voice crawled up from her lungs and out of her mouth like drunken word vomit. "I just want to go away. To be forgotten." She could feel it all closing in on her as the hands let her go, her body hitting something hard, knocking the air out of her.

"My little Aloise." The voice whispered softly. All that she could think to do was to clench her fists and grit her teeth in anticipation for some great pain. She never cried out.

"Do you regret it?" His voice echoed off the filigreed walls then back into Allie's ears, making her jump at the sudden realization that she had been staring off at something, a small shadow on the floor or possibly a scuff on the throne. It mattered little upon what her eyes had fallen, only that she had been lost in her own mind, having been practically forced to relive the moment she came into existence.

Allie's eyes blinked slowly, watching the colors dart in and out of her vision, her eyes tearing slightly from having been open for such an extended amount of time. Her hand flew to her eye, her finger tips feeling her soft and sweat covered skin of her forehead.

"Do you regret it?" Allie knew that this question was expected and simplistic but there was nothing left for her to ask at this point. Whatever he had called her here for had either already been said or he had decided that he would no long tell her. Did it matter either way?

"No. Not at all." He had raised one of his large fingers to the golden plate stuck over his eye socket and he wrapped it slightly with the tip. It was a private joke among enemies that for one moment were friends. Or at least two people not trying to kill each other, two people who had paid the same price, she for living, and he for victory.

A large explosion banged through the halls of the palace, sounding faint in the throne room, building up until the explosion lit up the walls and blew hot flames and stone across the room, the golden pieces of shrapnel cutting at the bare skin of Allie's face and further ruining her prison clothing. She saw, out of the corner of her eye Odin's body fly, the explosion having been much closer to his position in the room. The staff, gleaming with power and potential, skid across the hard floor, tumbling somewhere between the hole in the wall and Allie's feet.

The look an Allie's face was a mixture of two expressions she hardly ever wore, the first of which being concern and the second being 'Oh shit.'

She could hear his footsteps before she saw his large body emerge from the smoke and rubble. She was impressed, by his devotion to freedom, his devotion for leaving Asgard behind, and with it the threat of being place in chains once more. But still he was sloppy and reckless, his schemes always obvious.

Allie bent down slowly and picked up the staff, delicately weighing it in her hands before she looked up at Surtr. "What a mess you've made."

"Ah, but it worked did it not? I now have the power to travel the vast distance to Midgard. I now have the power to win my prize." He smiled and his rancid breath blew past Allie as he bent his face down to hers, apparently pleased with his work. Allie turned once or twice, studying the room, making sure that no servant or guard was lurking behind the throne or in a hidden corner. The room was utterly devastated, the thick metal that composed much of the architecture having been blown apart or melted by the heat of the flames.

When she decided it was safe to continue their conversation she spoke carefully. "No. I now hold the power to travel to Midgard in my hand. You have managed to make yourself quite useless after all Surtr. How disappointing." She paced away from the giant, towards Odin's crumpled body, his temple gushing thick red blood where it had hit the sharp corner of the stairs. She turned quickly, her hair spinning around her like a cape. "But I enjoy fun and games. It wouldn't hurt, I suppose, to let you continue on in your mission." She threw the staff towards him and he caught it, holding it like a small twig in his hand.

"But I warn you," She said as she pulled the dagger out from behind her, making it appear out of thin air, "If you continue to act like an imbecile I will be forced to make you regret it." She took a small step back and threw the dagger at him. She put all of her strength into throwing it and it twirled beautifully through the air before it finally collided with Surtur, hitting him in the arm and digging through his flesh. It went so deep that the blade was almost completely absorbed into the muscle.

His gargantuan hand could hardly hold the dagger long enough for it to be pulled form his upper arm. The sound it made was truly sickening but it made Allie's stomach flutter with butterflies at the actualization of her plan. She had not been lying, she no longer needed Surtr if she could have the staff but this way was much more enticing. It had so much more promise.

In a second he was gone, a swirling vortex of black emerging form the staff and crawling around his body until it pulled him in and tore him asunder, sending his body to Midgard, to the Avengers.

The portal was closing slowly and it present Allie with another opportunity to escape. She stepped closer to the swirling blackness that had taken over the once proud throne room. Each step was contemplative as if she were testing the water. When she got close enough to reach out an arm and gently stroke the hole in space the bracelet on her ankle began to spout electricity. It ran up her body and threw her back an inch or so. Her teeth were grinding against one another in frustration. It would always be the hard way, for she could never see the easy way until it was far too late to take it.

Allie sighed and walked away from the portal, now only a few feet wide and fading much faster than before. She walked towards Odin and knelt down beside his limp body, brushing the white hair, now stained red, out of his face. He had no worry on his face. This was the first time Allie had ever seen him look so peaceful and it ignite something in her chest. Was it pity?

She didn't care to find out, and she didn't have the time to ponder the question long. She heard the footsteps behind her, running around the last corner with urgency. She did not turn to greet the men who entered but concentrated on making her face long and twisted with sorrow and pain. It was not entirely a lie. Her ankle did hurt somewhat.

She turned her head slowly, adding to the dramatic effect and saw that it was Thor who had entered the room, several helmeted guards flanking him. The look on his face was pure sorrow and Allie couldn't help but feel the empathy clawing at her heart, cracking her ribs apart and squeezing itself between her lungs.

It was the first time in her life that she wondered just how deeply she had hurt someone. It was not the last.

This chapter is so long! I didn't notice when I was writing. Anyway I'm sorry if this sucks and all. But hey how else am I to learn? Thank you for reading and please comment!