We circle around to Jane and back again to Loki, but it is a good one.

Music:
Jane held hostage / memory recall - "Walk in the air" on Queen of the Damned
Brothers talk - "Father and Son" from Tron: Legacy or "Maharet" from Queen of the Damned

Chapter Twenty - Snuff

Her eyes snapped opened in panic as she took a gasping breath.

Fear ran through her body as Jane searched around for where she was. From what she could discern, she was in a large warehouse facility that apparently had been closed for some time.

She tried moving her hands, but found it impossible. Her arms were bowed to where her hands were above her head.

Her waist was chained to whatever it was she was secured to and her ankles were tied down with the same metal links.

It was dark out so she had been unconscious for some time.

That means that Loki had not found her or did not know where to look.

This location where she was stashed was smelly. A dump or...no. This was a fishy smell.

She was near the water or near a fish market.

Jane calmed her mind down and tried to use her mental link ability, the one that Loki had been using with to talk to her. Hopefully, he was listening for her or trying to sense her.

With this smell, how could anyone sense her outside of it?

A large creaking noise emanated from nearby so she reclosed her eyes to make it look like she was still out.

Calindor walked close behind the Asgardian deity Nanna as they entered the dilapidated building that they were using to hide in.

It was not the caliber of fortress that he was used to, but the goddess insisted that this was the safest place for them. The environment would not allow his prey to locate his bride or them until they wanted him too.

She also used some magic charms to mask any attempt at magic being detected.

A little overprotection, but they were ready for him to arrive.

He arrived to the body of the precious mortal that was tied down to a metal edifice that she had constructed. Nanna insisted that all this planning was going to be worth it.

Loki's flame would be extinguished and if they were lucky, so would this Sigyn, whom Nanna claimed was in the body of this mortal.

Calindor stroked a hand down this mortal's cheek, watching how it glided very so smoothly. Her hair was soft and delicate, like her life.

"What is it about you my dear?" he spoke to the body. "What is it that drives my Frost Giant brother to want to spare you? You are weak, pathetic, and mortal."

"Oh my dear demon," Nanna approached where he stood ever so delicately. "She is so much more than that. This mortal shell only houses what she capable of being. She in fact is a goddess herself; reborn in this form."

She reached and grabbed a powerful grasp of the mortal's chin.

The mortal was awake the whole time, listening to him.

Her blazing brown eyes, glistening with tears looked up at the woman and panned back to him.

"Aren't you my dear?" Nanna asked.

"Why don't you tell me?" the mortal asked. "Why don't you fill in the gaps before you snuff me?"

"Snuff you?" Calindor asked.

"A pathetic Midgardian term," the goddess clarified. "She means to tell her before we kill her."

Nanna released her. "You no doubt have some knowledge as to what happened to you. Otherwise, Loki would have no other reason than to kill you." She stepped away. "It was many times ago. My beloved Baldur Odinson, the golden Prince of Asgard...and the love of my eternity. His mother foresaw his demise and swore to protect him against every weapon of man and god. He was invulnerable against everything," she continued in her narrative before she turned and faced them. "Until your devil of a husband had to find the one thing that Lady Frigga did not spare him from."

"Mistletoe," the mortal whispered.

So Nanna was right. This mortal knew a little more than she claimed to know.

"Very good my dear," Nanna said. "I held my beloved Baldur in my arms, watching him die before me. Then they found Hodr and he confessed that your husband," she started to yell and shout, "had tricked him into killing my love." The goddess grabbed a fistful of her hair to force her to look into her eyes. "Your husband wanted everyone to suffer, simply because you finally told him enough was enough."

"I don't remember," the mortal cried, tears streaming away from her eyes. "These memories feel unnatural to me. Like they are someone else's memories downloaded into me. If I am this goddess as you claim me to be..."

Nanna struck her across the face. "You are her," she growled, "and your darling husband will soon come and he will watch you die; just before I take his life." The deity walked away.

"That was not part of our arrangement," Calindor said. "Killing a mortal is against Odin's laws. You will send down the wrath of Asgard upon my people."

She turned to face him. "Calindor, son of Canpelor, you will have the head of Loki Laufeyson to take back to your people," she told him. "I will cleave it from his shoulders. And you, my precious Sigyn will have your hands tied to where you cannot stop me."

The mortal struggled to be free.

"No one shall know happiness as I grieve," Nanna told them at a near whisper. "It is almost sad, Jane," she called the mortal by her Earth name, "that you will die without knowing truly what a legacy of tragedy you left behind. My heart to be broken until Ragnarok, all because your hellspawn demon of a husband tore mine from my chest. When he was condemned to that rock..."

Hastings Residence

"When I had been condemned to the rock," Loki was explaining the tale to the family, "was the first time that I felt fear rise within me. I begged to be released. I surmised that Sigyn would use this time to flee from me at last. I would have desired anything to be away from what I had done to her." He took in a breath. "For whatever reason, she stayed with me. She held the bowl over my head and kept the venom from reaching me, risking her own life for mine."

"That's our Jane," her uncle said. "Selfless to the core."

"Unlike her husband," Thor added in.

Rebekah snapped her fingers and pointed at him; a voiceless motion for him to be silent.

"Sigyn, or Jane as she known by here, she stayed with me. Day in and day out, she kept the venom from me; only leaving to empty the bowl and return. It was the first time that I actually accept that she did love me and I grew to love her. Initially I used Sigyn to gain leverage. To be the one prince who was married which would put me ahead for the throne over my first-born brother. I did not love her."

"Then why did she stay?" her son asked.

"She stayed because she believed in the vows of marriage and commitment," Loki explained. "She believed it to be sacred, the rites of marriage. If she left me, she would be no good to anyone else. Because of that, Thor's father Lord Odin made Sigyn, the goddess of marriage, commitment, and fidelity. I was never loyal to her. I had several children outside of our marriage, but Sigyn gave birth to our two sons."

"Great. More cousins to add to our dysfunctional family," Rachael filtered in.

"They're dead," Thor told them.

"Not Vali," Loki told him. "He has chosen to live in isolation in the dark woods with the elves."

"But he may as well be dead," the brother came back at him. "If he comes near the castle gates, he is ordered to be executed on sight."

"Only because he was driven to kill my son Narvi," Loki shouted back.

Her husband got up and separated the brothers before they came to blows against one another. "Enough," Michael ordered. "Whatever you all did in your realm, there is still the matter of my niece being missing and in the hands of maniac dead goddess and frost demons. Could we focus on that for a few minutes?"

"With pleasure," the thunder god responded.

Loki took a seat next to her on the arm.

"Here's what I am confused about," Chris spoke out. "How did you escape the rock if your son's body parts were used to tie you down?"

"My father could feel the rapid fluctuations in quakes upon your world," Thor explained. "Loki's pain and cries would cause Midgard to tremble and crack around you. It was not to last long. Without Sigyn to hold the bowl, Midgard nearly tore itself to pieces.

"He went to the altar and that was where we found a lot of blood," his brother explained the day that Sigyn went missing; presumed dead.

Loki pictured his father, astride Sleipnir and Thor upon his horse riding to the mountain where he was tied down. His screams filled his ears as the serpent's venom struck against his mouth and body as he tried to escape it.

Odin had come to his side and saw that he was writhing in pain.

Release him, Odin ordered.

Once the entrails had been disintegrated, Loki slithered down the rocks to the ground. He had never been so relived in all his life.

Thor lifted him up vertical and forced him to look upon him.

Where is Sigyn Loki? his brother asked.

He did not know and was too weak to even attempt an answer, let alone provide the correct one.

He had been taken to his father's steed (who also was an act of his mischievous ways) and saw the blood that covered the ground.

Though in a weakened physical state, his heart was the most painful.

Nanna's fort

Jane listened to the end of Nanna's tale, feeling heartbreak and sorrow for what she had been through. However, it did not give her an excuse for all the evil that she was committing to make herself feel better.

"So now I will destroy your husband, by allowing him to watch you die before his eyes," Nanna told her.

"You are sick and twisted lady," she told her. "Do you think that Loki is going to one, allow me to be killed or two, allow you to live if you do."

"It is not a matter of if, my dear," the goddess told her. "A matter of when and how. I stabbed you once and you were reborn. I am going to make sure that you do not speak or get the chance to speak so you are reborn again."

"I do not know what I did to be reborn in this mortal body," she shouted. "Do you think that I would have wanted to be reborn as a mortal? Not likely. I have no doubt that Loki has figured this out and is probably on his way here to kick your..."

Nanna struck her across the face with her fist.

Jane flexed her sore jaw and turned back to face the demented woman. "Why don't you untie me and let me show you what I can do?" she requested, anger in her voice.

Nanna smirked. "You lack the stomach to kill," she said as a long blade appeared from the gauntlet on her bracer.

She then took that blade and whipped around...slicing it across the neck of the giant behind her.

The Frost Giant was in shock at the action, but did not get to retaliate as his head flopped off his shoulders and to the stone ground. The body soon collapsed beside it.

She gasped in shock.

But now Jane knew that her fate was in her hand. "Your husband destroyed mine. Now I will use your death to destroy him," Nanna said before she walked away from her. "Enjoy your last few moments of your mortal life," she called to her while leaving.

She knew she either needed to contact Loki through her powers, remember and use what magical abilities she had, or pray to Loki that he got to her...and fast.

Hastings Residence

The Asgardian Princes Loki and Thor were sitting outside at the pool's edge.

"So you came here, even though you were given the crown as King of Jotunheim," Thor was rambling, "to open a portal to Asgard and bring an army through to destroy the one home you have known? To punish the one family that accepted you for whom you were? Our father released you from the rock after Sigyn's murder and this is how you repay him?"

He could see in Loki's face that he felt shame.

They were standing on the patio before the pool. Loki was walking delicately away before he turned to face him.

"What do you hope to gain from taking the woman that I care for and destroying Asgard?" he asked him.

His brother was still silent.

"Answer me!" he shouted.

"Nothing," he lightly replied. "I will have gained nothing. In a war to come against Asgard, more Jotuns will die, Jane would be killed in the crossfire, and the nine realms will continue to fear and hate me. I could not live with myself anymore." Loki turned to face him. "I have just learned what it means to have someone who loves you, and with Odin as my witness, I will fight for that feeling."

Thor was stunned. His brother was in love with Jane.

"If you loved Sigyn that much before, why didn't you tell her?"

"Because back then, that was a different me. A power craving, attention seeking, uncontrollable façade of a man. I may have come here to take Jane back to Jotunheim and to open a portal. Now all I want is for her to come and be with me. To love me and I to love her for all eternity."

He was speechless. They both loved this woman for completely different reasons and would lay down their lives for her.

Thor came and put a hand at the back of his head.

Loki looked up into his eyes.

"Before we can begin the fight for her, we must have something to fight over," he told him. "We need to find her."

And his brother smiled and covered his hand with his own.

The rest of Jane Foster's family came out to the deck and join them.

"We want to help," Michael Matthewson told them. "As a senator, I have some authority to where we can intensify the search for her."

"Thank you Son of Matthew," Thor said to Jane's uncle. "It is the will of Odin Allfather that we find Jane and..."

Loki cried out in a sudden pain while dropping to his knees.

Jane's aunt went to him as he held his head.

"What is it Loki?"

"You mean besides his acting," the younger Hastings female blurted out.

"Jane," Loki said her precious name. "I think...oh god, she's screaming."

Now he had his confirmation. If the mind-link between Loki and Jane was connected, there was no doubt that Jane was Sigyn.

Thor came to his brother and knelt down. "Find her brother," he begged of him. "You have the strongest connection to her. You can find her."

"Her eyes are closed. I cannot."

"Ask her to open them. Tell her that you are coming Loki," Rebekah begged him. "You can do this son."

Loki spoke into his mind. He had to do it while the connection was at its strongest in order to establish where she was being held.

Jane, Jane my darling. I need you to calm down. Please open your eyes and let me see. Show me where to come.

Their minds became linked and he was able to see a few things.

Jane was being carried on a large object. She looked over and he could see the Frost Giants that did this.

He could see Nanna was leading them.

Look around dearest.

Jane turned her head a couple of times and he saw water and a large ruined structure.

The only word he could see Trinity.

Jane was put down and she was struck across the head.

The connection was broken.

"It's done," he told them.

"What did you see?" Rebekah asked.

"Water, the ocean I think," he said. "I also saw a dilapidated building and the word "trinity." Does that mean anything?"

"Trinity," Jane's aunt repeated the word. "Down by the oceanfront."

"There are not a lot of places down by the waterfront that are abandoned," Christopher told them.

"Wait," she said. "Michael is there not an old church that closed down by the waterfront...Trinity Baptist, I think it was called."

"Yeah, but I thought it burned down?" Michael said.

"No, you are both wrong," Chris said. "It was turned into a fishing emporium after the fire. It's like right on the waterfront. They did baptisms right there in the water."

"How far is this place?" his brother asked.

"At least two hours," her uncle told them and started dialing on a portable device in his hand. "This is Senator Michael Hastings. I need local LEOs to the old Trinity Fish Market down at the waterfront. My niece is there and she has been abducted."

"No," Loki told him. "If you send in your soldiers, Nanna could kill Jane."

"Is that not her intention all along?" Chris asked. "She wants to kill my cousin no matter what."

"But she could expedite her plans or cause Jane even greater harm," Thor interrupted him. "No, one human life taken is one too many, in the almighty eye of Odin."

He called forth his entire golden armor out of limbo and the helmet from inside the pool house. It indeed felt uplifting to be in his full glory once again.

From his hand, the staff appeared with a glowing blue object within it. Its presence startled Jane's mortal family, but Loki was ready for a battle.

He walked up to Rebekah whom, for all intents and purposes, was Jane's mother after she lost her birth-parents.

Loki took her hands in his; resting his staff into the space at his elbow.

"When I find Jane," he said as they locked eyes, "I swear on my life I will return her to you."

Rebekah put a hand to his cheek underneath the metal of his helmet. Her thumb smoothed his cheekbone. "You do not need to do that," she told him. "I have seen what you did for her, how you look at her, the way you feel for her. She is yours. All I ask is that you take care of my precious Janie and never break her heart."

A tear slipped down his cheek. "You have my word," he told her before taking her tightly into his arms.

He released her before leaping into the air to save the woman he loved.

"Are you coming brother?" he called down to Thor.

Thor did spring into the air to join him.

Now, it was time to save the woman they loved.

It's Loki and Thor to the rescue! Do not forget to review because the battle is going to be EPIC!