Loki flopped onto the bed, utterly exhausted. She vaguely noticed Elliott laying a blanket over her but didn't have the energy or desire to protest. In minutes, she was asleep.

Loki blinked in the early morning sunlight, groaning as she sat up. She climbed out of her bed and crossed her bedroom towards the closet. Wait...her room? Back on Asgard? How the Hel did she end up here? Wasn't she stuck in an alternate dimension... or had that just been a bad dream? Her gaze darted around the room, looking for anything that might give her a clue what was real - and what wasn't. Nothing seemed obviously amiss. Loki allowed herself a sigh of relief. Maybe it had all been a bad dream.

The door opened with a slight groan of the hinges. "Good morning, darling," her mother said with a smile. "I brought you breakfast. I thought it might be nice if we ate in here for a change; I know how much you hate formalities."

"You're dead," Loki said, staring at Frigga in complete shock. "I watched you die."

Frigga laughed. "My dear child, I am very much alive, I assure you. It must have been a dream. Now, come. Eat." She set a platter of food on the table in the corner and relaxed languidly into one of the plush green reading chairs flanking it. Numb with shock, Loki moved to follow her mother. She picked up a small scone and nibbled on the corner, alert for anything unusual. Something wasn't quite right, she was sure, but what it was, she had no idea. So, for the time being, she decided to play along.

"Good morning dear sister!" Thor's booming voice was accentuated by the sound of the door slamming open. He came in and picked Loki up in a crushing bear hug, just like he used to do when they were younger.

"Ach-! Thor! Can't...breathe..." Loki choked out. Thor put her down and beamed at her.

"Forgive me, sister. It is simply a relief to see you recovered from your illness."

"Illness? What illness?"

"You mean you do not remember?"

"No... I don't."

Sif was next through the door. Odin and Laufey were close behind.

"Loki, it is good to see you."

"Loki, are you all right?"

"Loki?"

"Loki!"

"LOKI!"

Loki backed away, hands clamped over her ears and eyes squeezed shut. "This isn't happening," she muttered.

"Of course it isn't, darling," Frigga said softly. Loki opened her eyes and immediately wished she hadn't. Her mother looked as Loki had seen her last: head severed from her body, blood gushing from the wound. Laufey, her father, was the same. Odin's eye patch had been replaced by a gaping hole through to the back of his skull. A knife wound - one Loki had put there herself. Thor looked as he did the day Loki had faked her death: alive, but covered in dirt and blood, mostly his own. There was so much blood. It was everywhere. Spattered on the walls, dripping off her hands. And it just kept coming.

"You did this to us," Frigga hissed, inches from Loki's ear. "You bring nothing but death and destruction. Now, it will be your doom." She swept out the door, closing and locking it behind her. All the others mysteriously vanished, but Loki was too hysterical to notice or care. The blood was up to her ankles now and rising fast. She rushed to the door and tugged on it desperately. It was no use. She was now standing waist-deep in blood, and somehow, she knew it was all from deaths she had caused. She was going to drown. She was going to drown if she didn't get out of here. Someone was screaming. Was she screaming? She didn't know. It almost felt like someone was shaking her, but there was no one else here. She was alone, alone and going to die-

"Loki! Loki, wake up!" Elliott jumped back as Loki shot up in bed, a manic look in her eyes and magic swirling at her fingertips. "Whoah, whoah, whoah! It's me!"

The tendrils of magic faded slowly dissipated. Loki looked around the room, almost as if she didn't know where she was. Which, given what kind of dream she had just been having, was entirely possible. "You ok?" Elliott asked hesitantly, hands raised in the universal gesture of non-aggression.

"Yes. No. I don't know!" Loki seemingly collapsed in on herself, head in her hands. Then she was sobbing, and somehow Elliott found himself holding her as she cried. "I just- they were there- I-I- I didn't want to- didn't have a choice- so-so much blood...so much blood..." Her ramblings eventually faded away into mumbles, and the mumbles turned into silence. Somewhere in there she had begun clinging to Elliott's jacket (When had that happened? He didn't know) and still showed no signs of letting go.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, Loki looked up into his face. Elliott felt his heart stop for just a moment as he realized just how beautiful those green eyes were, especially when they were so close. Loki's face immediately flamed bright red, and she pulled away. And just like that, the moment was gone.

"Hey, whatever's in your past, I get it," Elliott said, trying to fill the silence with something meaningful. "We've all faced ugly choices with no way out." He put his hand on her shoulder, and she flinched away with a gasp of pain.

"You're hurt." It wasn't a question.

Loki didn't answer.

"Let me see."

"There's nothing your mortal medicine can do for that wound."

"You don't know that."

Seemingly in response, Loki slid her jacket off her shoulders. Over the top of her dark green tank top, Elliott could see an ugly scar, angry red as if it had never truly healed. No, not a scar. A brand. In the shape of a serpent that, evidently, continued on down a good majority of her back.

"Loki what the hell?"