A/N: Thank you to anyone who's been following, favoriting and reviewing. Sorry for the slow, descriptive build. Backstory is key! Shit gets crazy from here on out, I pinky promise :)

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"Lord Justice Clerk, if you please."

Odin's voice boomed over the palace halls.

Loki could scarcely remember the last time a trial was held here. Most crimes committed were resolved quickly. Killer caught, sentenced to death, and that was the end of it.

Not that he intended to be caught.

The mistletoe arrow was easy enough to fashion. Amora did it herself, in fact. The tricky part was disguising himself.

Balder and the rest of the idiot Warriors stood in the courtyard throwing huge rocks at one another. From Loki's vantage point on the palace roof he had a clear shot to Balder's heart.

He had shapeshifted into a wrinkled old man, unrecognizable to anyone in the kingdom. If he were to be seen, no one would know any better. If someone were to ask, he would feign blindness.

As it turned out, he was seen.

The search for the old man stretched on for days. Frigga stayed firmly locked away in her chambers, mourning the loss of her eldest son. Amora did the same, under the guise of mourning, of course.

When it became apparent the 'old man' was gone, they turned next to the arrow that pierced Balder's heart.

And while Loki did possess a proclivity for shapeshifting, Thor managed to convince Odin that a fair trial was in order.

"You cannot possibly know if it was Loki, father. What cause would he have to commit such a crime? Amora is the one keeping mistletoe."

Of course, when push came to shove, Amora was absolutely not going to admit to anything. She claimed the mistletoe was kept in a little closet for safe keeping, used only for spells and potions. Someone must've stolen it.

Yes, this was the story they ran with.

Until... fingerprints.

Stupid stupid stupid!

He should have worn his thickest pair of gloves. Should have known better than to assume that Balder's death would not be further investigated.

The trial was a mess of false witnesses claiming they saw this or that. Sigyn tearfully insisting that Loki was home the entire time. It astounded him to know that a liar like himself could even convince others to lie for him.

The fingerprints, however, were undeniably his own. After three days of deliberation, "witness" testimony, and the most insane conspiracy theories he'd ever heard... they finally arrived at his verdict.

They couldn't prove he was the old man. But they could try and claim he provided the arrow to the killer. Blind with jealousy for the woman whom he wanted for himself.

Loki stood, hands stuffed into his pockets. His palms were clammy and he could feel the knots tying his stomach. The jury was his own peers. Faces he remembered from his younger school days.

Here it comes...

"High Court of Asgard, in the matter of the Aesir versus Loki Odinson. We the jury of the above entitled action find the defendant, Loki Odinson, guilty of the crime of accessory before the fact of murder."

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How long has he been here in the dark?

The Crimson Hawks carted him away from the trial days ago, Frigga's cries the only sound in the hall. They left him in the dungeons to await sentencing.

The emptiness in his chest was all consuming. Ripped from his children, ripped from his home. He'd never been caught before.

Stupid.

The door swung open with a loud creak. The silhouetted figure loomed ominously in the doorway, neither speaking nor moving. Loki situated himself on the floor in a corner, knees drawn to his chest like a child. He narrowed his eyes at the figure, tiring quickly of the mind games.

"Well speak, damn you! Do not stand there gaping like a fool." said Loki angrily, stretching his legs out in front of him.

The figure entered the room with a slithering, snake like motion. Perhaps it was the lack of proper nutrition over the past few days, but Loki found himself too weak to resist when the figure fisted his collar and heaved him to his feet.

He chuckled darkly. Delirious from dehydration.

"So I have been sentenced, then?" Loki asked, still unsure of his keeper's identity.

The guard was not someone he recognized. A new addition, perhaps. He said nothing, binding Loki's hands quickly.

Loki stuffed down the creeping anxious sensation. The guard had yet to breathe a word.

"Or perhaps you lack the powers of speech. Too dull witted?" He was talking to himself. Loki was not typically one to chat idly. The guard was, however, frustratingly silent.

It was not until they reached palace gardens that true anxiety settled in. The sky was pitch black, no stars to pepper the sky. How late in the evening was it? Or, even, how early in the morning?

The guard prodded him sharply in the back, coercing him to keep moving.

"You know, it might be advantageous to tell me where I am to go. Otherwise, it makes much more sense for you to take the lead." said Loki, standing firmly in place.

The guard grunted in response, tugging aggressively on Loki's chains and pulling him toward the forest edge.

Panic.

The anxiety was turning to panic.

As the pair of them neared the forest edge, he could hear the cackling of other people in the clearing above. He gulped audibly, swallowing down the old memories of mornings spent crying in the forest after a visit with Elliot.

They pushed past thickets and bushes galore, making their way to the opening.

A good majority of the guards stood belly laughing in the clearing. Sigyn stood among them, very obviously hungover and pissed off. Her eyes nearly bulged from her face when she caught sight of him.

With no regard to the chains, she pushed past the guards, flinging her arms around Loki's neck.

"Something is wrong." She whispered to him feverishly.

"Enough of that." One of the guards, the tallest one of the group, pulled Sigyn away.

"Get your hands off of me!" She shouted, much to the delight of the group. The tall man grabbed her arm roughly, eliciting a cry of anguish from the smaller goddess.

"Release my wife at once!" Loki bellowed, wishing the damn chains weren't binding his magic.

"Do not fret, duckling. She is only here to watch." The speechless guard finally found his voice.

Loki let out a furious roar, fighting the chains with all of his strength. That nickname would plague him forever.

Damn you, Thor.

The panic was replaced with his confusion and rage for 2.5 seconds before rushing back in like a cold front. They pulled his chain, hard, sending him stumbling forward.

"You will see." One of the guards grunted, seemingly aware of Loki's next question of "What?"

The small group trodded along in relative silence for what felt like an hour before coming to a small, damp cave.

He shuffled close enough to Sigyn to ask the question that had been on his mind for well over an hour.

"Where are the children?" Loki hissed.

Sigyn stuttered over her words before saying she left them at the house. Her answer made the guards erupt into a furious whirlwind of cackling, making Loki's heart sink to his feet.

"Here is what we're going to do, Liesmith," The tallest man began to speak again.

He forced the pair of them into the cave, with only a single torch to light the way. Upon the cavern floor was a single wooden bowl and several larger boulders. A curious sight, indeed.

"You're going to lie down, and we'll do the rest." The guard's face was alight with a devilish sort of delight.

Fuck no.

"What is the meaning of this nonsense?!" Sigyn cried, freeing herself from her guards' deathly grip. She rubbed at the tender spot on her arm, face scrunched up in fury.

"This is your sentence, Loki No-One's Son." The guard's howled with laughter.

"Impossible. Odin would never..." Sigyn's voice trailed off and a look of pure horror took over her face. Loki followed her gaze to the large wooden bucket one of the chubbier guards brought in from the back of the group.

There in the bucket was a massive, bloody mess. Were those... ?

In one swift motion, three guards descended upon Loki in a furious whirlwind. Through his chains he managed to land a few stiff punches to one of their torsos.

Somewhere among the chaos he heard Sigyn screaming. Loki managed to catch snippets of the shouting, despite the blood pumping so fast it caused a deafening roar in his ears.

"No!"

"—ripped apart,"

"His own brother!"

"—filthy little beast."

"Just like their father,"

They pinned him, beat him, and tied him the nearest rock with the sticky, coppery contents of the bucket.

Sigyn had fallen to her knees, weeping uncontrollably. Between her convulsed gasps for air he managed to hear her scream,

"Norns why?!"

Loki tried to blink the blood pouring from his hairline out of his right eye. He saw the guards retreating, chortling the whole way.

"Sigyn for Norn's sake, control yourself!" Loki shouted over her hysterics. He struggled against the bloody "chains." They were surprisingly thin, resembling entrails or something similar.

He groaned in disgust, fighting the urge to vomit. They must be enchanted, for he couldn't seem to break free from their hold.

Sigyn managed to stifle her cries long enough to crawl on all fours to her husbands side, her face a puffy, tear stained mess. Fresh tears erupted again and she buried her face in his chest, grabbing absently at the bloody chains.

"Sigyn, it is a silly prank. Intended to frighten us. This is not Odin's sentence." said Loki, trying to keep the sheer terror out of his voice. He could feel his left eye bruising quickly.

"Narvi," Sigyn choked out, continuing to tug at the entrail-like chains.

"He's home, love." Loki whispered, trying to sound comforting. Still he felt that sinking feeling in his stomach again.

"Narvi," she repeated, louder and more feverishly. She continued tugging, sitting up to make eye contact.

No.

She couldn't mean...

Sigyn held up her blood soaked hands, showing Loki her palms before pressing them into her face with a low cry.

"My sweet, Narvi!" Sigyn burst into tears, pulling the braids from her hair and smearing the blood all about her face and scalp.

Loki felt sick.

No, worse.

He felt an all consuming disgust. With himself. With the guards. With everyone.

"No," he croaked out, shaking his head violently. He felt the back of his head collide with the rocks beneath him, but couldn't bring himself to care.

"Oh, no! Norns. No, please, no no no." Loki closed his eyes, finding no tears welling up at all.

His body was numb, his mind a foggy mess. Too shocked to even comprehend.

"This is... a joke." he forced a nervous chuckle, keeping his eyes closed.

"A cruel joke."

Was he truly convinced of that? Or simply finding a way to cope?

One thing was certain. When the serpent slithered from her hiding place, Loki did not even hear her venomous hiss. His screaming drowned out any other sounds.

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Drip.

It felt never ending.

Drip.

He would wear the scars on his face for the rest of his days. That, or wear a mask.

Drip.

The screaming stopped after the first few times she emptied the bowl of the serpents venom. Numb to the searing pain.

Drip.

"I have to empty the bowl again." Sigyn rasped hoarsely. She'd been without water or proper sleep for, easily, two days now.

Drip, hiss!

The venom's contact with his skin did not elicit a peep from his lips. Not even so much as a groan.

Drip.

He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling Sigyn's presence by his side once more.

Silence.

"Loki, look!" Sigyn cried. The great serpent was retreating, apparently tired of torturing her visitors.

With her slow withdrawal deeper into the cavern, the bindings went slack, freeing Loki from his spot on the rocks.

He sat up slowly, stretching his back and arms first. Sigyn collapsed in his arms, too tired to move further. She did not fall asleep, but her breathing steadied quickly.

They sat there for a long while, holding one another close in silence. The pure exhaustion would make teleportation tricky. He knew Amora's cottage would be nearby. Perhaps only an hour's walk away.

It took about five seconds for him to squash this idea. Amora's home would be the very last place Sigyn would want to be right now.

With a heavy sigh, he heaved himself to his feet, pulling Sigyn up with him. She groaned in protest, clinging to him for support.

"We need to get out of here." said Loki, his throat so dry it burned to speak.

They clambered through bushes and low hanging branches, scraping their arms in the process. Loki was convinced they weren't supposed to make it out alive.

His suspicions were confirmed when they finally found the forests edge. The guard standing watch could not have looked more shocked if he tried.

Feeling Sigyn stiffen at his side, he found a strength deep within he wasn't aware he still had. Loki walked straight up to the gobsmacked guard, landing a punch squarely to the man's face.

They made it to the palace gardens before practically being assaulted by Frigga and Thor. Frigga threw herself into Loki so hard she tackled him to the ground. Thor picked Sigyn up wordlessly, carrying her bridal style into the castle.

Loki stumbled to his feet, managing a weak smile. It was evident Frigga had been crying.

"Words fail me." said Frigga breathlessly.

Loki nodded curtly, his eyes a hazy green. He had not managed to hide the venom scars, preferring to show them off to his captors.

"This was not your fathers doing." Frigga insisted, slipping her hands into Loki's fluidly.

He cast his eyes to the ground, shuffling his feet awkwardly. What do you say to something like that?

"Amora confessed she provided the arrow. She came to us days ago, saying she could not bear to see you pay penance for your crime." Frigga's tone grew serious, her mouth a thin line.

Loki felt his heart soar at the news. She had not abandoned him like those years ago. She was changing, for the better. A little flash of hope ignited in his soul, wondering to himself if there was hope for happiness with her after all.

"Your father has not yet decided her fate." Frigga continued to speak, pulling Loki toward the castle.

He followed suit, seeing Odin standing at the palace entrance. He stalled a moment, nervous to even look the older god in the eyes.

"She was being abused." Loki offered weakly, knowing damn well it was no excuse for fucking murder.

Frigga nodded shortly.

"Well, she will not be serving her sentence for another nine months at least." said Frigga, her eyes flicking from Odin to Loki's face.

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He stopped in his tracks, heart thrumming wildly in his chest. His knees felt weak, he felt the bile tickling the back of his throat and swallowed the acidic sludge down thickly.

"She's...?" His voice failed him just then, the lack of water and sleep completely eradicating his power of speech. Frigga's expression turned grave, dangerous almost and she nodded in confirmation.

"Amora is with child."