Ice

A/N hello again :-)

Despite the fact that Odin said that Gaia would stay with her, Lena is still surprised when Gaia appears just before she and Loki are due to leave. What surprises her even more is that Gaia is holding a chest of clothes, and wearing a thick cloak.

Gaia holds out the clock draped over her arm to Lena.

"Here, my lady. We will be travelling up high, and it will get cold." She says businesslike, ignoring Lena's confused protests and walking over to talk to Loki.

Lena catches Gaia's arm, forcing her to look at her, but not in an aggressive way.

"Are you coming with us?" She asks, a hopeful tone to her voice. Gaia smiles.

"Of course, my lady." She bows slightly, still smiling, and continues towards Loki. Lena pulls the cloak round her shoulders, and looks up to the skies. Gaia said they were travelling up high. If so, then why is Loki saddling a trio of thoroughbred horses? She frowns.

A thought strikes her, and she blinks. They aren't flying horses, are they? A kind of giddy delight takes over her for a second. Flying horses? How awesome! Thelittle girl part of her squeals excitedly. The other half of her frowns. Composure, Richards, composure. Then she frowns again, sadly this time. She's not a Richards anymore, and she's not sure if she's entirely happy about it, when she thinks too hard.

Then she looks over at her husband, who smiles encouragingly, and she feels alright again. She's happily married, she knows that.

She walks quickly over to Loki, still eyeing the horses uncertainly. He's currently in conversation with Gaia, and both of them are whispering. Loki notices her approaching and looks up, finishing his conversation with Gaia.

Gaia smiles the knowing smile that never seems to be far from her face, and walks towards the nearest horse.

"My lord, I will make sure the port is ready." She climbs on the horse with unimagined grace.

Loki smiles.

"Thank you, Gaia." Gaia rides off, quickly, out of the courtyard.

Lena turns to Loki.

"Where is she going?" She asks, watching Gaia until she vanishes out of sight.

"To the port."

"Port? What port?" Lena looks around her.

"The port with the flying boats that will take us to the castle." Loki replies, as though this was obvious. Lena laughs, and claps her hands together.

"Oh, it's the boats that fly. I was rather hoping it was the horses." Lena giggles, blushing when she sees Loki's astounded face.

"Flying horses? Are you mad?" Loki says incredulously, but laughing slightly. "This is Asgard, not the land of the fairies!"

Lena doubles over, laughing more at Loki's reaction than at the actual idea of flying horses.

"This feels like fairy land to me!" She laughs, and Loki just looks at her.

"But you can't seriously think we have flying horses?" He states.

Lena nods, and Loki just shakes his head in mock disappointment. He stares at his laughing wife for a few moments, then looks at the sky. A red balloon is flying there. He smiles. The balloon was Gaia's signal that they could come, and it was safe. But it won't be safe for long.

"Come on, Lena. We need to go." A serious look flashes over his face, as he is worried. They need to move fast, before Odin noticed, or Heimdall notices and tells Odin. To be honest though, Loki thinks, Heimdall has probably already noticed. Loki just hopes he is in Heimdall's good favour enough for Heimdall to turn the other way, at least until they are safely gone. If Odin finds out, he will be furious. So it's best they leave quickly.

Loki mutters a small prayer under his breath, addressed to no one in particular, and pulls a protesting Lena towards the horses. They clamber on, after Lena reads Loki's worried mind and relaxes how important this is. She stays silent after that.

They ride out the courtyard, ignoring the strange looks they receive, focusing on the road ahead. Once out of the castle grounds, Loki's horse pulls slightly in front of Lena's, leading it towards the port.

This isn't too bad, Lena thinks, considering I've never ridden a horse before. She still finds it a bit frightening though. These horses go very fast, and she's not sure that horses go this fast on Earth. She smiles smugly. They are super horses after all.

The hooves make quite a lot of noise on the cobbled streets, and Lena notices lots of faces at windows, and people coming out of their houses to see what all the noise is. She catches fragments of their conversations as she rides past.

"Who is that?"

"I don't know, but she looks scared."

Lena puts a determined frown on her face.

"Kids, go back inside. Stay away from the prince. He's dangerous."

Lena frowns, totally forgetting what Loki did to New York, confused as to why he's dangerous.

Eventually they reach a corner of the city right on the edge, with few buildings and fewer people. There is however, a large glass building filled with golden boats, all of which are adorned with wings. These must be the flying boats.

Outside the building, stands Gaia, who stands between the sleeping bodies of two guards.

The horses stop, and Loki dismounts, then comes over to Lena to help her off. Together they run over to Gaia, who smiles, and receives a smile from Loki.

"Congratulations Gaia. Even faster acting than last time." Loki tells her, and Lena frowns.

"Are they okay?" Lena asks worriedly, bending down, and checking the steady pulse of the nearest guard.

"Of course." Loki says. "Just asleep, that's all. Gaia knocked them out with a sedative she bakes into her world famous chocolate cake."

Gaia smiles proudly, and takes Lena's arm.

"Come, my lady. We must depart."

Loki follows them into the building, and soon they are climbing into the boat nearest the edge of the large window facing out onto the clear skies. Gaia seats Lena down in the boat, and then sits next to her. Loki stands at the end, and takes what Lena thinks resembles a massive joystick from the video games she used to play when she was a kid. She sighs, and Loki smiles.

"We're going now. It's okay, Lena." She nods, and looks out at the skies. Loki moves the stick to the left, and up they rise, and out the window.

Lena gasps with a new and sudden experience, one of floating, but not by her will. It's different to when she conjured the force fields to carry her, and she's not sure she likes flying this way.

When they reach a steady altitude, she stands up. Loki raises his eyebrows, confused.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"I'm going to fly alongside. This boat makes me feel a bit sick." Lena says, smiling. Loki laughs.

"Go ahead. But be careful." He grins, as Lena shuts her eyes, concentrating, going through the same procedures as she did on top of Stark tower.

Just before she steps onto the force field, she opens her eyes to look at Loki, remembering that strange night. And when she looks back at him, she knows he remembers it too.

When they arrive at the castle, Lena is over the moon with joy. It's beautiful, beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Perhaps even more so than the gardens of Odin's palace. Lena giggles as she thinks this, feeling a tad rebellious, as though thinking this was against some kind of law. But no guards swoop down on her, so she just smiles and runs through the halls.

"I'm going to go explore!" She tells Loki happily. Loki smiles.

"Okay." He laughs. "Don't get lost, though."

"Me? Never!" Lena exclaims, knowing full well that she lost her sense of direction years ago, and that it hasn't turned up yet.

"I'll be in here." Loki says, pointing to a room on his right. He watches happily as Lena disappears round the corner, and then goes into the room he indicated.

The room has a high ceiling, and is filled with a simple desk and chair, with a few bookcases and cabinets lining the golden walls. Long shafts of light flow into the room through the window which looks out onto the expansive gardens. Loki sits at the desk, and twirls round on the chair.

He sits there for a while, lost in his happy thoughts, until there is a knock at the door. He turns, grinning, thinking of all the things he wants to say to Lena, and to ask her what she has found.

His smiles falters slightly when Gaia enters, holding a piece of folded golden paper, sealed with green wax. The seal of Odin.

Loki takes the paper from her wordlessly, with shaking fingers, and doesn't notice when she leaves, shutting the door behind her, a worried look on her face. He turns the paper over in his hands as he walks over to the desk, then places it on the desk and sits down in the chair. The chair doesn't seem so fun to spin on anymore.

He dreads what is coming.

He breaks the seal carefully, and opens the paper. There is little writing on it, only one sentence, written in green ink.

I know what you have done, and for that you are no longer my son.

The words shoot like ice through Loki as he reads them, freezing him and his heart. The light coming in is no longer as bright, and suddenly this whole thing seems pointless. Why did he do this? Why did he upset his father in this way?

His questions are answered when Lena walks through the door, and for a few moments, he can ignore the words, because he has Lena, and that's all that matters.

Lena sees the broken look on Loki's face, and walks over, her face a picture of worried curiosity. Loki can't find the words, and instead just hands her the paper wordlessly. As she reads it, her face paling, Loki puts his head in his hands and begins to sob.

Lena returns the paper to the desk, and hugs Loki to her.

"It's okay." She whispers. "It's okay."

The ice melts slightly.

"It will be alright."

Loki remembers how angry he is, and then the ice refreezes, taking over his whole body and heart. How could it ever be okay? A day will come when Lena is dead, and he's alive, and he is alone, without her, and without his father.

He pulls away from her.

"No." He, or something like him, snarls. He's possesed by the anger that was held back by the walls built by Lena's comforting words. "It's not okay." Then magic floods out of him, magic which throws everything around him backwards, smashing into the walls, including Lena. She lies on the floor, blood pooling around her from a cut on the back of her head.

Loki melts for a moment, and runs over to her.

"Lena." He whispers. "Lena." He prays that she's alive, alive so he can make things right, he can't lose his father and her. Please let her be okay. He doesn't think he could live with the guilt of killing her because of two seconds of rage.

Lena's eyes flicker open.

"Get away from me." She snarls, getting up slowly, despite how dizzy she feels. She shoves Loki away, and walks towards the door. She walks out of it, then collapses into Gaia, who doesn't question, just carries her away.

Loki freezes, and he knows that this ice is nothing to do with the fact that he's a Frost Giant. This ice is different, it is ice of hate, of fear and of anger. This ice is all consuming and frightening, and he can't fight it.

And so, sinking in despair and guilt, Loki freezes.