Chapter 25
The halls glowed eerily bright in the moonlight as he made his way down the great, empty corridors of the palace. There was such an emptiness here. No servants scattered the halls, to greet him with their usual show of respect, their eyes weary of him with a fear that he had instilled in him so long ago. They knew what cruelty he was capable of.
He stopped walking suddenly, coming to a door leading to a darkened area of the living quarters he did not seem to recognize. So strange, he thought again, to be here with no one around. Where were his attendants? Something horrible must have happened here.
A gust of icy air came from out of the blackness, winding itself around him like a thousand snakes. It was neither comforting nor soothing as it usually was. The chill surrounded him, pounding at his body, needling his skin. There was no overcoming it, so he let it overtake him, as he headed for the darkness.
His feet propelled his body outside onto a dark terrace overlooking Asgard. The moons had vanished now, and the stars flickered dimly in the heavens. Walking slowly up to the railing, he inspected the scene in the sky even closer. One by one the stars were extinguishing themselves, blinking slowly for a few seconds and then disappearing completely from existence itself.
"Why, if I didn't know any better, I would say that you were shocked, old friend."
He spun around to address the figure behind him, the shining young blonde soldier who smiled at him with those kind eyes.
"Kaapo?" He whispered.
Kaapo leaned toward him, putting a firm hand upon his shoulder, pushing him back around to face the sky again. His eyes were no longer so kind.
He turned his attention away from Kaapo to see that only a few hundred stars were now left.
"So surprised, and yet you did this." Kaapo growled menacingly in his ear, the grip on his shoulder nearly becoming painful.
He turned to look at him again, but the once bright, lively young man had gone gray in the face. He took a step back and grasped at his stomach, blood seeping through his shirt.
He looked down at his wound, then back up again, smiling. "You did this. You brought the end of all things."
Kaapo began to cackle with mad laughter, nearly making a retching noise as he doubled over to clutch the wound on his stomach. He took a deep breath and pulled his head back up slowly.
"Would you like to see it? Hmm? Would you like to see all of it, old friend?"
Whether he wanted to see or not, Kaapo pulled him over to the very edge of the railing, nearly pushing him over the balcony to witness the sight below. Sounds of the ill and forsaken began to fill the air, moans and shrill cries of pain, and a stench came forth to his nostrils that nearly caused him to lean over and vomit. Suddenly, he was no longer on the balcony, but on the ground in the center of the city. Bodies littered the streets, and each individual carried the pallor of death, their skin covered in revolting pus filled boils. Most of them were Aesir, but there were other races among them as well- elves, humans, Jotnar, all of them sick and dying.
He put a trembling hand to his mouth, as one of them reached out to him, grabbing at his ankle. He stumbled backwards, just out of their reach, accidentally tripping over another one. Their wailing intensified as they saw his face, and the few that could actually still move began to lunge at him. Terrified, he ran out of sight and into a nearby alley way and clutched at the wall, his knuckles white.
"I did not do this." He whispered desperately. "Kaapo...please."
"Oh but you did, my son."
He whirled around, and there she was, his mother, grasping at the wall, inching toward him slowly, her breathing labored and her skin just like that of the others.
"Mother, no!" He cried, reaching out to grab her, just as she was about to fall to the ground.
He pulled her into his arms, and she smiled up at him with all the love she could muster up from her heart.
"It is alright, my darling. I am so very proud of you, I always have been."
"I did not do this!" He protested again, but she just closed her eyes and shook her head.
He began to cry, then, sinking down to the ground with her as she became a dead weight in his arms.
"Mother, please, don't die. I never wanted you to die."
She didn't answer.
He sat there for a long time, until the sound of footsteps pulled him out of his misery.
"There! There he is! The Destroyer." Came a voice from just outside of his haven.
He stood, carefully lying his mother down on the ground. Stealing a glance at her one last time, he looked up to see an angry diseased crowd beginning to advance upon him.
He saw everyone he had ever known and even more that he had not. The Warriors Three, Sif, even Thor stood on the front lines, murder in their eyes. At the head of them all was Odin, Gungnir pointed dangerously at him.
"I am truly sorry, my son." He called out. "But this has to be done. It seems as if you were never meant to be one of us after all."`
He took a deep breath and retreated deeper into the alley.
"Coward!" Yelled Odin. "Come out and face your death like a true son of Asgard."
He held his breath, part of him hoping that they would just finish him off quickly and be done with it. But then he heard a sound that he had never expected to hear ever again.
"Loki." Whispered a voice from behind him in the shadows.
He closed his eyes and exhaled, afraid to look.
"Loki, open your eyes, darling."
He did so, only to find that his body had turned blue again. He held his hands up to his eyes, inspecting himself for a moment.
"No!" He yelled, balling them into fists, shutting his eyes again tightly.
Two small hands came from behind him in the darkness, pulling him away, hugging him from behind, and suddenly he was gone.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
He opened his eyes, and he was back in his bed, away from all of the horror and gore from before. He turned over, and there she was again, her head on the pillow next to him, her eyes smiling kindly.
He reached out to touch her cheek, but jerked his hand away, noticing that it was still the same horrible blue.
She giggled and grabbed his hand anyway, kissing his palm before bringing it up to her face.
"I told you, I like it, but you never listen to me." She scolded him playfully.
"The problem is that I don't like it." He responded, never blinking, never taking his eyes off of her.
She rolled her eyes and scooted up to him, burying her head in his chest, cocooning herself tightly into his body.
He let go of his fear, and wrapped his arms around her then, pressing his lips to the top of her head, suddenly painfully aware of how real this all felt.
"I miss you too." She murmured onto the skin of his chest, kissing him gently there.
"Inkeri," He closed his eyes for a split second as he spoke her name, "How long can we stay like this?"
She laughed and looked up at him, running her fingers through his hair in the exact maddening, electrifying way that she always used to.
"Well, until you wake up, of course."
He sighed and leaned down, finally connecting his lips to hers, pulling her as close to him as possible. The warmth of her lips sent a jolt of energy that passed straight through him from his head all the way down to his toes.
She responded in kind, kissing him back deeply, and wrapping her arms around his neck. He held her tightly, afraid that letting go would mean the end of it all.
Eventually, she pulled back first, and kissed his nose.
"You infuriating man," She chided him, "Distracting me as usual."
He smiled. "No, I think that it's the other way around."
She laughed, and sat up, the warm spot where she lay suddenly growing cold.
"Come on, now." She urged him. "There'll be plenty of time for that later. Right now, I wish to show you something."
She got up, beckoning him to follow, so he rose, reaching out and grasping her hand for dear life, terrified that she would disappear on him.
They walked slowly through the now bright and golden palace, now void of all of the more disturbing imagery of his recent nightmare.
She pulled him out into the gardens, and along the path that led them all the way to the Ministry of Science. Pushing open the large, glass doors of the main entrance, they made their way in, stopping finally when they reached her old office.
"Here we go!" She announced gleefully as they entered.
Everything looked the same as the last time he saw it, down to the last detail. The little figurine still sat on her desk, the chair was pulled out, holographic projector on.
"I haven't come here since, since you left." He admitted.
She grinned.
"But you found my key." She replied.
He looked down and realized that he was suddenly holding the thin golden serpent in his hand.
His eyes returned to hers.
"Inkeri, what is this for?" He questioned.
She didn't answer him, but turned away from him to the wall that her desk was facing. She walked towards it, turning to give him one last smile.
"Try not to have any more nightmares, please. It upsets me to see you that way."
He watched her, puzzled, as she turned back and kept walking, disappearing into the wall.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Loki awoke with a gasp, his heart beating rapidly and his body soaked in sweat. He sat up quickly, throwing the covers off of his bed. Grabbing his simple green tunic and pulling on his boots, he grabbed an object from his night stand, and hurried out the door.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Eir stood tiredly in the small kitchen of the healer's ward, blowing hot steam off of her mug of tea. All of the other physicians and nurses had long since gone home for the day, finally leaving her to the peace and quiet that she so valued most.
Returning to the main healing room, she set down her tea and pulled up a projection on the hologram table. Loki seemed to be recovering very nicely, but there had been something off about him this morning, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
The scans of his body had been just fine, but his brain was another story. There was something about his brain waves…something not quite right. She expanded the image of his frontal lobe, and paused there. Perhaps she had been going about this the wrong way. There wasn't a problem with the neurons communicating with each other, but they seemed to be amplified, as if they were being overworked ever so slightly.
"Aha." She murmured to herself, not knowing why she hadn't thought to test him in this specific way. Pressing a few buttons on the monitor, the image began to glow purple. She then pulled up another image, a normal scan of his brain from a few years before, when he had wounded himself in battle during a skirmish off world.
Her eyes grew wide. There was no problem with his synaptic functions, in fact they were working all too well.
A shuffling of feet behind her broke her from her research as she looked up to see one of the young nurses, Helka was her name, enter the room.
"My apologies, my lady. I hope I didn't startle you. I've only come back to get my cloak."
The doctor nodded to her and turned back to her screen.
"Is…is that the brain of a telepath?" The young nurse queried, suddenly becoming very interested in her work.
Eir looked back up again, giving her a tight lipped smile.
"Yes, it is. Tell me young Helka, what do you see?" She held out her hand, inviting her to look for a moment, and the girl approached curiously.
"The psionic energy waves are higher than any I have ever seen." She observed.
Eir cocked her head curiously at the image.
"Indeed they are. Very interesting." She responded.
"Who does the image belong to?"
Eir smiled politely, shutting the computer off.
"Unfortunately, I know not. It's only a teaching tool that I found in some of my research files. Thank you for your input. Goodnight my dear. "
Helka nodded and picked up her cloak, quickly scurrying out of the room.
Eir turned back to her console, flipping on the image again. Very interesting, indeed.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000
*eek! We're getting so close to the end of this first little novel! I can't believe it...I also can't wait to start writing the second one. Thanks so much for all of your comments of encouragement, it really means a lot, and thanks to those of you that recently followed me. Shoot me a comment or pm if you have any questions!
The next chapter will answer a lot of questions...but may leave you with even more...bwahaha! I'll try to get it up within the next few days.
Sorry if this chapter was kinda gruesome btw, but this is a Loki nightmare we were talking about. I imagined that one of those has to be pretty insane, full of guilt and sadness and disturbing imagery, and Ragnarok-y type things. Alright, I'm done carrying on now. Peace out!*