It has been a wonderful and wild journey to get to this point. I'm so excited to see how much Loki and Astrid have grown through this story, and it's only going to get better. Thank you to ALL of you who have reached out with your support - it means the world to me, and keeps me motivated to finish this epic tale (because we're not done yet!).

I've never written a story this long or in-depth before, and your encouragement keeps me invested in the best version of this story I can make. So PM me, leave a comment, share my story on your blog, or just tell your friends...I love hearing from you, and it really does keep me going. :)

Big, emotional feels coming up - I hope you enjoy it!

Love, Rose

While Loki's troops began to mobilize to the for the drive to New York City, Astrid returned to the lab. Even through the busy chatter and hurried movements of the people around her, everyone stopped and stared as she walked by them. In the past, she would have been self-conscious or shy; but now, she simply walked forward, eyes straight ahead, striding through the bunker with purposeful haste, commanding the attention of everyone within eyesight, and acknowledging none of them. So this is what power feels like… Astrid thought to herself.

Glad you're enjoying it, she heard Loki respond. Astrid could practically see his devilish smile, and she laughed softly. She hadn't meant for him to hear that...but she didn't mind that he did.

I am. A girl could get used to this.

She loved the way the nanobots made her feel when she exerted herself - she was graceful, fast, untiring. As she got closer to the door of the lab, she noticed a sturdy-looking vertical pole near the entrance...and she got an idea. She grinned and sped up, running toward the pole, then jumped at the last second and flew toward it head first. She twisted her body in the air and grabbed it firmly, then swung her legs around to aim them toward the door. At just the right time, she released, and went flying into the room. A quick mid-air adjustment, and she landed softly on the tile floor of the lab. Silence filled the space around her as people watched her in awe - until someone started to slow clap. Bystanders quickly shushed them.

Astrid went to her workstation and grabbed a handful of capsules that had been loaded with iridium, but not programmed. Realizing that the people outside the door were still staring, she turned around to face them. "Show's over," she said with a characteristically gracious smile. "You've got lots to do; you should be getting to it." As the crowd parted, she made eye contact with several people, even giving them a little wave as they left.

Astrid chuckled quietly to herself. The "old her" wasn't completely gone - the parts she liked about herself were still there. The person who would laugh until she snorted when her friends told a particularly bad joke, who would help those in need, who felt love and compassion...who hadn't been influenced by Loki. Astrid had changed a lot, but at her core, there were some pieces of her that she was glad were unchanged. She hoped, after this was all over, it would stay that way...

She opened the special program she had created on the flight over, loaded it onto a tubeful of capsules, and secured them in her belt, thinking about whether she would have the opportunity to use them. But before she left, her gaze landed on Karine's empty workstation, and her heart ached. Karine must be sleeping...and she wished more than anything that she could have said goodbye one more time. Then, shaking her head to clear her mind, Astrid ran off to meet with Loki.

Several minutes later, she, Loki, Dr. Selvig, and a group of soldiers were in a semi truck with the caravan headed to New York City, where they would open the portal. They didn't speak much during the drive - Dr. Selvig continued to fuss with the machine, ensuring all its calibrations remained perfect. Astrid noticed Loki seemed particularly lost in thought, though she couldn't blame him; the anticipation of what they were about to do weighed heavily on him - she didn't need the stone to know that.

Loki closed his eyes and breathed deeply, feeling the weight of the helmet on his head, the staff in his hand, his feet on the floor, trying to pull himself out of his own thoughts of what was going to happen and into the moment. Focusing on physical sensations usually helped, but today...well, there was much more to think about than usual. Maybe the army would be ready when the portal opened...and maybe it wouldn't. Maybe his attack would be too much for Earth's forces to handle, but maybe not. No matter what, it was all on him. He had done everything in his power to assure this victory, but there were always unforeseen variables, always ways for him to lose his grip on the situation. If he failed, Thanos would make him beg for death; Astrid, Karine, and Steven would be punished as war criminals; Thor and Odin would be proven right, that he didn't have what it took to be a king, and they would not come to save him. Everything was riding on today.

Certainly Midgard hadn't been his first choice for a kingdom. These puny, short-lived mortals could hardly compare to the Asgardians, or even the barbaric Frost Giants. But this would be his stepping stone. A victory here would mean a foothold in the universe, a place to establish himself before expanding his empire. The world was plentiful in resources, and humans had already established his kind as gods, which would make the transition relatively easy...but that was only if he survived this war.

Odin had made conquest sound so simple. When he told the stories of his days in battle, there was never a hint of doubt that his armies would reign victorious. These stories were told, of course, after the fact; history is written by the victors, he knew well. How would his story be told? Would he be remembered as the powerful and mighty king he hoped to become? Or would he fail, his name forever synonymous with attempted greatness that ended in tragedy, like Icarus from this world's mythology? Or worse, would he be forgotten?

Loki took another deep breath and stole a glance at Astrid, watching her hold the pistol and examine it, learning how it was put together, disassembling it and assembling it in her lap. He felt a pang of compassion and gratitude that made his brow peak - she had done everything she could to ensure his success, things that other humans may have considered impossible. It still astounded him how they had gotten here, from Stuttgart to Heidelberg to New York. She had become a different person in each place - a victim, an explorer, a scientist, and now...a warrior. That was something that he had been surprised by when he really got to know these mortals, these humans - they were amazingly adaptable. They may not be physically strong, or have access to the magical arts, or even be the most intelligent creatures, but they could adapt to any situation. It was both endearing and terrifying - a lifeform that could not be stopped, only slowed.

Maybe that was why he felt so anxious. Even if he won the day, even if the world belonged to him tomorrow, the resistance he would face afterward as their king had the potential to be unrelenting. They never quit; there was always hope in their minds that they could fight any adversary, be it a conqueror, or an environment, or a distant journey. He was just glad that he had some of that endurance on his side, especially in Astrid. She was the most determined, creative creature he had ever met; he hoped her faith in him would not be misplaced. With one final sigh, he turned his gaze from her and closed his eyes again. Time to focus, time to think.

Sooner than expected, they felt the truck come to a stop, and the back opened. They were in an underground garage, facing a service elevator, the "Stark" logo emblazoned on the wall in front of them.

"Let's go," Loki said. He closed his eyes, and the machine lifted from the ground without anyone touching it. Dr. Selvig's eyes went wide, and Astrid stood shocked, surprised and impressed. Slowly, and with immense concentration, Loki moved the huge device telekinetically into the lift.

"Wow," said Astrid, once Loki had settled the machine in the elevator. "I had no idea you could do THAT."

Loki opened his eyes and blinked several times. "You knew I could move objects with my mind," he chuckled as he rubbed his forehead and winced slightly - the strain obviously took a toll on him.

"Though, to be fair, that's a lot bigger than a test tube..."

The elevator doors closed, and a few of the soldiers remained outside to guard the lift. As the service elevator of Stark Tower climbed its way to the roof. Astrid looked through her belt, getting familiar with the other tools that she would have access to. The doctor was still toying with the portal machine, fine-tuning and double-checking, rambling.

"I still can't believe it. Astrid Skarsgaard, isn't this incredible?" said Dr. Selvig, "Loki gets two of the world's greatest scientists to help him? This is wonderful! The tesseract has shown me so much. More than knowledge…it's truth…" his voice faded off in a worshipful whisper.

"I know," said Astrid curtly, doing her best to keep from openly mocking the old man who was dancing on the edge of blissful insanity, "It touches everyone...differently." She shot a sarcasm-soaked glance at Loki, and grinned at the tight smile he made to keep himself from laughing, neither of them letting Dr. Selvig see their clandestine moment.

Astrid touched the radio in her ear. "Sigyn to Bladur. Are your soldiers in position?"

"Nearly. They've done well blending in." Steven's hushed voice crackled over her headset. Every one of the enhanced soldiers was in street clothes, spread throughout a 3-mile radius from the tower, paired off. Once the portal opened, they were to begin taking down local resistance and dismantling the military's ground forces, informing Loki of any movement or bunkered positions as the invasion proceeded. Boots on the ground, eyes and ears.

Steven Foster had been put in command of the squadron that would scale the skyscrapers and run surveillance. Astrid knew that was the perfect position for him - he was genuinely committed, and his passion would inspire the soldiers around him. Loki had told her, in the heat of battle, any act of heroism was another step to victory; Steven was primed for such an act.

Right when Astrid thought the ride to the roof would never end, the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. The sunlight blasted into the dark space, and she threw up her arm to block the light until her eyes could adjust, the bright blue sky brilliantly filling her vision.

How long had it been since she'd seen a blue sky? She thought back...before the elevator, before the garage, before the truck, before the bunker, before the limo at dusk and the nighttime flight from Germany...before the day she and Karine took the nanobots from the lab - it had been grey and overcast - and before the night she and Loki had connected with the stone for the first time. Which meant the last time she had seen a blue sky was...brunch in Heidelberg. She felt a strange sense of emotional pain, part nostalgia, part sadness, and part acceptance that she could never go back to be the person she was on that day, when she'd made her choice.

At the time, she had thought of it as finally acknowledging her fear and resistance, to be brave and embrace the opportunity that had been unexpectedly thrown on her. Now, with everything that had happened, it felt like years had passed. Psychological years since a blue sky. It was so...strange.

Loki closed his eyes again and the machine began moving telekinetically into position at the highest point of the tower. Astrid slowly pulled herself from her thoughts and began to follow him, when she heard the sounds of the city floating up from below. Myriad voices rode the windy currents through the skyscrapers and up to her ears. She heard the traffic, honking and accelerating; a street musician playing a saxophone; a helicopter; a baby crying.

There was a sudden lump in her throat as she walked toward the edge of the building and looked over it down to the streets. There was so much movement, so much life. People walking, going about their day, oblivious to what was about to happen. Cars and uncountable yellow taxi cabs driving down the narrow lanes, stopping at lights, picking up passengers. A mother held her daughter's hand as they hurried through a crosswalk at the intersection of two busy streets. Two men yelled at each other in front of a hole-in-the-wall grocery store. An old woman swept the sidewalk in front of her stoop…

All of their lives were about to be torn to shreds.

She had known the risks, and she had followed Loki, let him open her up and awaken the relentless drive that would bring him to power - but after all she'd been through, after all she'd learned, after everything she'd done...all those people...all those lives...this was all wrong.

"Loki...when army arrives...what will happen?" Astrid asked, her voice shaking. She already knew the answer..

"They will do what they do best. They will cause chaos, rain down fire from the heavens. Destroy everything for miles…" he smiled sadistically.

"What about the people down there?" she said, pointing to the edge of the roof.

Loki looked at her to see what she was referring to, then scoffed dismissively. "Casualties of war." he said. "They are the unfortunate victims of conquest, simply wrong place, wrong time."

The blood in her veins turned to ice.

Karine had been right - she was so focused on getting Loki what he wanted, justifying her rage and her desire to hurt those who deserved it, that her only concern had been what the world would be like AFTER the war was over. She desperately wanted to destroy the corrupt leaders of the world, but the end goal was to rebuild a society that would make people's lives better. She knew it would be bloody, that there would be casualties on both sides, but…Astrid's heart pounded.

"Loki, we can't...we can't just let the people down there die..." She felt her emotions shift, from anxious anticipation to near panic, her fear of the impending battle beginning to clash with his fury. "This is going to be a bloodbath - we need to get them out of there..."

Loki turned to her slowly, incredulously. "What did you THINK was going to happen?" Loki growled. He could feel her uncertainty growing, her sudden epiphany turning her determination into hesitancy. They both felt his anger mounting. "Did you think the Chitauri would come down here, with all their weapons and force, to ask politely for control of your world? Don't be foolish, Astrid. This is a war!"

"Loki, those people are innocent, they don't deserve to die-"

"ASTRID!" Her name was soaked in rage and fury like she had never heard before. She immediately shut her mouth, shocked and terrified by his furious outburst. He had gone from irritated to murderous in the span of a sentence.

A menacing, threatening glare bored into her like a blade. "I haven't come this far to be stopped moments before...do you have ANY idea what I've been through to get here? Who I am? WHAT I am? I am a prince of the Frost Giants, a prince of Asgard. I am over 1,000 years old, I am a master of sorcery, and I am nearly indestructible by any means that these mortal can wield. I am a GOD!" he yelled as he took another step toward Astrid. The stone glowed brighter, more intensely. Astrid stumbled backward as he pushed her toward the edge of the roof, fear surging in her, bringing with it doubt, regret...

If he felt her emotions change at all, he didn't show it. His own feelings of wrath and destruction were so all-consuming, so violent...it was the monster.

"I was BORN to rule, and I will earn my throne by CONQUEST!" Loki shouted, his unhinged rage exploding as he stood just feet from her. He continued to push her back, the sounds of the city below her coming closer...

"You think I care what happens to those people? These humans' short lives me NOTHING to me! Why do they MATTER!?"

Astrid back was on the guardrail, the precipice of Stark Tower dropping off just inches from her. She stared at him, frozen. Loki towered over her, fuming, his angry glare locked onto her pallid face. Charged with emotion, he was savage, brutal, full of bloodlust...the monster that would not be stopped.

What could she do? Her fear didn't stop him, didn't make him feel protective or empathetic toward her...he just raged. She had trusted him, had given him everything he wanted...and he had turned on her. It had always been about HIS plan, and HIS conquest. This insane gambit that he had brought to fruition and NEEDED to see it through to victory...it meant more to him than anyone, than anything...it meant more than her. Her breathing shallowed as she forced back the tears that began to form behind her eyes.

And why? To prove to his family he could be a king? To prove to the universe that he was a ruler? To prove that despite being cast out by the Frost Giants, despite being lied to by the Asgardians, despite never knowing another soul that could understand what he had gone through, he would do whatever was necessary to forcefully carve out a kingdom where he would make his own destiny, where he WOULD belong...

That was it. Now she understood. His strength came from this rage that manifested from his insecurities, from his desperation. But her strength came from another source...and now she knew how to use it.

A calmness overcame her as her fire pulsed, a small spark in the darkness of his influence within her. No, she thought. Not like this.

Astrid locked eyes with him, no longer fearful, but still and quiet...immovable.

"Because of me."

Every emotion she had ever felt - fear, happiness, excitement, worry, love - combined into one overwhelming feeling that burst and flamed outward like never before, building, expanding, filling her with a confidence and determination that relentlessly pushed back against his incendiary mania. He stopped, still full of hate and anger, but now, resisted.

"Loki," she said, her voice low, angry, quiet, but her unwavering gaze transfixed on him, fearless. "I joined you because I know my world can be a better place, and you have the power to make it that way. This is MY planet, and MY home, and MY PEOPLE deserve a king who will protect them."

Her eyes flashed a brighter blue and Astrid moved toward him, letting go of the guardrail. Loki instinctively took a step back. He was off guard, hesitating...now he could feel the change in her. His rage-fueled resolve weakened ever so slightly, but it was enough. Astrid pushed her pain and anger forward into him, crushing down on the monster that controlled the man she loved, Her determination, her willpower, everything she was and everything she had become, charged into him like hellfire. She would destroy the beast. Her eyes locked to his.

"You gave my life a new purpose. You changed me. You released the darkest parts of me - the parts that scared me, that I never allowed myself feel - and showed me how powerful they are. I've revelled in what we've done together, and I will never be the same, because of you. You gave me what I needed to accept who and WHAT I am."

Astrid took another step forward, forcing him back, her eyes watering from the intensity of the emotions coursing through her. But she endured it, pushing everything into his soul, bending the monster to her will.

"I gave you the edge you needed to win. I sacrificed EVERYTHING for this - my life, my body, my friends…" The thought of Karine strengthened her unrelenting torrent of focused willpower, the agony tearing away the parts of him that resisted her determination. "I want to see the leaders of this world burn, Loki. Crush them, kill them, take their power. But humanity needs a savior - YOU must lead your citizens to greatness."

Astrid continued, stronger, more resilient, more determined, feeling the monster beginning to disintegrate within him. She powered through the emerging tears as she pushed him further back. "I CHOSE this, Loki. I CHOSE you! And I wouldn't take it back, not for a second. But if you let this poisonous dream control you, if you don't try to help MY people...I WILL stop you. Because those are YOUR people too, Loki, and they matter, because of ME."

Astrid stayed frozen in place, squared off against Loki. But it wasn't fear that held her there now. It was conviction.

Her words stopped him. He hadn't thought about how Astrid would feel once the war had started - his only thought had been on the victory, and nothing more. Now that oversight was now staring him full in the face. She was inside him, knew all his feelings and thoughts, knew that underneath his showboating and charisma, there was a scared and lonely man, desperate to relieve the isolation and inadequacy he'd felt his entire life. And she was the only one who made him feel like he was not alone.

Right when he was about to attain everything he had ever wanted, everything he had fought for and hurt for and lied for, his focus narrowed to achieving this one victory, on finally winning SOMETHING...she stood in his way.

"It's time to make YOUR choice." she commanded.

Time stopped.

They stared at each other, everything else in the world shut out, leaving nothing but their thoughts, their feelings. She felt his strength and weakness all at once, felt the two sides of him locked in combat. The monster, trying to save itself, telling him that only conquest and victory mattered, that he needed to destroy her and get what he had desperately wanted for so long. And the man who had found something new and strange when he met her, found someone who wanted to be with him, who would do anything short of murdering innocent people to help him get what he wanted, and had. For what felt like eternity, the two sides strained against each other, knowing that now, one could not exist in the presence of the other. His eyes lost focus, thoughts flying, the pain of the conflict burning his soul into cinders. But when he looked up, when he saw the tears roll from Astrid's eyes, the intensity of their emotions ripping her apart, her passion, her resolve…he chose.

Instantly, his walls came crashing down. Astrid suddenly felt all of his conflict, his anguish, his fear...his hope, his ambition, his confidence. Everything that he was flowed into her, merged with her, became a part of her. He opened himself to her completely, just as she had done for him. Astrid's heart burst, and the hateful monster, desperate and screaming, never having believed that there was another way to find redemption, faded and dissolved into nothingness.

Loki gazed into Astrid's eyes, his breathing haggard, his eyes brimming with tears as he felt the demonic fury within him soften and melt into her. His rage, his fury, his anger all wilted in the presence of her steadfast commitment.

"I love you." he said, his voice cracking, barely above a whisper. "My queen..."

Astrid's focus shattered, tears flowing freely down her cheeks as she felt his acceptance, his trust, his love.

He reached for her, and put her face in his hands. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close, feeling eternity flow through them. His hands slid into her hair, and they kissed passionately.

With that kiss, Loki released all the resentment and loneliness and anger and insecurities that had held him back for so many years. Finally, his life was unrestrained by resentment and hatred.

Finally, he was free.

Now, she truly understood. She was not good. She was not evil.

She was his. And he was hers.

Alone, each of them was an incredible force to be reckoned with, powerful and strong-willed. But together, they were unstoppable. He was the conqueror, and she was the compass.

He rested his forehead on hers, staring deeply into the fiery blue of her eyes, and he whispered to her, softly, gently. "Astrid, my love. We will rule this world...together."