~ Chapter 51 ~

All thought fled his mind as he could only watch Loki as the shadow in the portal grew larger and fiercer. He felt so helpless, like there was nothing he could do, and as his helplessness grew so did his fear of loosing Loki.

He was loosing Loki.

~ Flashbacks ~

Thor raised his head as he stared at the… Jotun? He was different from all other Jotuns he had seen before. Smooth blue skin, royal markings, no taller than himself, and this Jotun even had hair. Not to mention that this Jotun wore clothes.

Loki smiled amused, knowing he was correct, as he made his way to the Asgardian. "My name is Loki."

The Jotun put his arms around Thor and held him secure, folding their bodies together into as small heap as possible. The Ice wolf's tail wrapped around their feet and turned to soft pelt on contact. Silently it wrapped it's body over theirs and faded away before their eyes, along with theirs.

Their journey took them deep into the labyrinth. Sometimes Thor was sure they were lost, or that he had lost sight of Loki. All around them was nothing but different shades of blue ice. They had even once passed a monster frozen in the ice. Loki had not warned him so when he looked to his side he came face to face with it and almost had a heart attack. The Jotun had laughed at him.

But it was the sudden dark color in the corner of his eyes that caught his attention when he walked past the pillars supporting the remaining roof. The Asgardian turned his head and his world froze into that moment.

Loki was sitting between the pillars, lifeless.

His blond head resting close to Loki's on the same pillow. He let his eyes drink in the closed eyes and shallow breathing, his blue features was relaxed and he took it a sign that everything was well.

He wrapped his arm carefully around Loki's waist under the covers and closed his own eyes. Resting together and hoping his body heat could help Loki.

He buried his face in the crock of where Loki's throat and shoulder met, his hands moving lower until they could cradle Loki's butt. The Jotun moaned at the contact and those delicious lips opened slightly.

Thor smiled before leaning forward and capturing Loki's lips with his own.

"I love you." he whispered when they parted.

"I love you too."

Thor smiled even wider before capturing Loki's mouth in a deep kiss.

~ End Flashbacks ~

"No." he whispered to himself. "Never again."

Instead of reaching for his hammer, he summoned it and let the leather wrapped handle grace his palm. He let his natural gift as thunder God resonate through the metal and smashed it against the force pushing him back.

It created an equal force that parted the oppressing hindrance. Thor smashed again and again with every step he took to keep it at bay. Half his strength went into getting him past the wall and into the safe area of the portal. The same space as Loki.

The second he was through he wasted not a moment to run up to Loki. With his arms around the Jotun's waist he yanked his mate back from the portal, disrupting the flow of magic and sending it high wired through the air.

The portal started to disintegrate and a unknown voice screamed as a flaming hand pushed through the shrinking portal.

"NO."

The portal collapsed into itself and took whatever had been on its way through with it.

Loki struggled against the shadow holding him, stopping him from going home to Thor.

"Loki." Thor said firmly while he tried to stop Loki from hurting either of them. "It's me. Thor. Don't you recognized me?"

"No." screamed Loki in protest, like he couldn't understand Thor. "Let me go. THOR HELP ME."

An elbow to his gut told the thunderer that his love was still caught in whatever had happened. He let completely go of his hammer which fell to the ground and dented the metal. Digging his hands firmly around Loki's waist and upper body, he leaned forward to an exposed ear and whispered.

"Aura." he put every last note on pronouncing the endearment correctly, just like Loki had so many times, and it managed to come through. Almost like the word started to wrap itself around Loki's mind, he slowed his struggling and started to listen more carefully.

"Aura?" he answered back, as if he wasn't sure who was speaking to him.

"Aye. It's me. I have you. You are safe now."

Like the wheel of fate turned around them, or the Norns re-connecting their threads again, the shadows began to clear around a single light that guided him out from the nightmarish world he was seeing.

Warm hands was holding him and he could almost see the lightning at the end of the tunnel.

The air was tense with the sky murky like dirty water. The cold wind was pinching his sensitive skin, and yet he wasn't really cold. Loki's green eyes looked down at the ground and saw the scorching marks of magic.

"Loki." a whisper against his ear drew his attention to the one holding him. Blond hair, piercing blue eyes and a worried grimace.

"Thor?" his own voice was raw and strained as he realized who was holding him.

He slowly turned around and wrapped his arms around Thor's neck. A shaking sob escaped his lips as his face snuggled into the crock of Thor's neck and closed his eyes. "Aura."

"Yes beloved. I'm here." one of his hands came up to stroke the dark hair. He never noticed until now how long his Jotun's hair had grown. When they met it had just barely reached his neck, but now it was touching his shoulders. So much time had gone by since their very first meeting under the ice of Jotunheim. So much had happened since his decision to go to the frozen realm. A life time of events. "I have you, beloved."

Thor became aware of the Midgardians watching them but at the moment he could care less. All that mattered to him was that Loki was safe. He also knew this couldn't keep on happening.

Not once, but three times now, Loki had been in mortal danger since they met.

The first time was when they fell through the ice in the tunnel. The second time was when the dragon appeared. And now this. Two times Jotunheim had almost taken his life, and now Asgard had tried to take it. He wouldn't allow any more. Even if he died he wouldn't let Loki get hurt or caught in the middle of anything again.

Ever.


A roar of rage tore through the dimension and every living creature trembled in fear as its master threw a fit. His right hand which had passed through the portal before it collapsed had been burned by the inter dimensional crossroad. Even if he was healing rapidly, a feat that would have killed most others, he was more pissed off that his plan had failed.

The flames shoot sky high and torched anything it touched. Minions, believers, slaves, rocks, anything and everything. Nothing was safe. A star imploded as he turned it inside out.

The earth trembled in fear and only its millenniums of slavery to its tyrant did it prevail in staying in one piece.

He flung his uninjured fist against the wall and shattered the rock like it was made of glass.

"You may have stopped me this time, but I will find a way to your realm, and when that time comes, now one will stop me. NO ONE CAN STOP DORMAMMU."

TBC