Penance

Penance: Punishment inflicted on oneself as an outward expression of repentance for wrongdoing

The cold season hit Asgard with its icy chill. Not that he could feel the soft breeze against his skin. He breathed out a stilted sigh at the sight that had roused his presence.

Sleeping so peacefully, Fury had summoned him. Perhaps in her dream. How calm and beautiful her ethereal face seemed. Her skin once lifeless glowed in the light, her lips possessed a darker hue of red and her cheekbones were as sharp as her blade. She didn't see it. She hadn't dared look into that shattered mirror. A shame.

His sights darted to the body beside her which illuminated by the early morning sun against their golden skin. Fandral. The thought made his face scrunch in disgust. Her first act as a Goddess was to sleep with the village idiot.

That tattooed arm rested on top of the quilt, exposing the nakedness of her form that hid beneath the covers. Her white skin seemed lighter in comparison to the dark tendrils of ink. Her waving locks cascaded into a tangled mess against her bare shoulder. He smiled.

Like she could sense his lurking those dark eyelashes fluttered open, instantaneously darting towards him.

"What the hell, Loki ?!", Her hands pulled the covers against her chest as she bolted upright. His eyes trailed over the blanket.

"Missing me I see", His smooth tone queued a confused expression to paint her face.

"You summoned me in your sleep",

Fury shifted in her place against the grey headboard, gripping her quilt closer.

"Must've been a nightmare", She spat in a lowered tone, her eyes resting on Fandral's sleeping form that rested at her side with his arm splayed over her torso. Repulsive.

"Perhaps you longed for that to be me. And while he is a God, perhaps he fails in comparison to the God of Mischief.", Loki spat with a venomous uprising, that sinister smirk placed firmly on his lips.

"Is that...are you jealous?", The silver-haired woman asked softly, a smile lingered.

"Jealous?... A monster would never be so lucky.",

Loki hissed and disappeared from her sight.

Thor didn't show at the training yard at midday. She didn't see him for a few days and then a week. In his place, Odin assigned Sif to train her. She was brutal and unforgiving in her training, it made her long for the God of Thunder's return.

All over she ached with bruises and cuts. She returned to her chamber with a stifled sigh. Her eyes trailed over the bed that she had welcomed Fandral into. The following morning had been uncomfortable but he seemed to understand she didn't seek anything more from him, at least she hoped he did.

A soft vibration alerted her sights to the mantle of the grey fireplace that looked to have once been a lighter colour but was layered in ash and soot. Upon it, her PDA chattered with life. The reflective screen turned a lively blue and white block letters displayed the time on Earth and below on Asgard. The device that was no bigger than her hand hadn't worked since she had returned with Loki's corpse. It was Alien technology but it was yet to be perfected to receive and make calls or even retrieve mission details. A bubble of writing popped up, a message from Earth, from her superiors. She rushed to wrap her fingers around the alloy casing, almost snapping the paper-thin device in her hurry. Just as her eyes settled on the message an error fizzled the screen into darkness and she was left staring at her reflection. Damn. She murmured

"Shit",

The alloy device made a small thump as she tossed it onto the paisley quilt. Her eyebrows furrowed at the changed purple quilt cover. She glanced around and the whole room had been cleaned, pieces of broken furniture picked up and pictures rehung. A tired sigh left her being.

She was in desperate need of a shower and some clothes that weren't stained by grass or scuffed by the bite of cobblestones. Sif had landed her on her ass too many times. Her body ached from the assault and her throat felt as dry as paper. A light tapping emitted from the tread of her heavy boots against the tile of the bathroom. Where the palace had been extravagant in its detail and tapestries this room was not. It held a dull grey floor tile and white walls with barely enough room to fit the shower, bath, basin and toilet comfortably. It seemed the decor of 'I'm rich and you're not' had only extended so far.

Her fingers curled around the edges of the sink, her first port of call after she slung her long-sleeved shirt over her head and into a crumpled pile by the door. She observed the cuts and scrapes on her shoulders from the mirror above the basin. Her zip-front sports bra felt uncomfortably tight against her raised and swollen skin like the stretchy material was the only thing holding her chest together. She sighed. A line of raised and reddened skin trailed from her hip to her sternum, some dried blood crusted it. Sif's blade. It hitched the breath in her throat.

Training with Sif had her stripped of armour and left her fighting with just her bare hands. But the woman who had defeated a Warrior Goddess seemed to have faded into the dust. Her body now felt foreign and clumsy to navigate. Her bones ached. She was an easy target and Sif took that to her advantage. Bitch.

Her eyes drifted from the mirror, not daring to meet those crimson orbs. Weak, she was being weak and an utter child.

Slowly her sight raised and only for a moment did she catch her celestial appearance. Another being caught her vision. A shadow lurked behind her, baring eyes of black and gold. Valerian. Fear consumed her as her flame had once done to him, crawling slowly but eating away at her flesh with each ascension. Shit. She froze and he didn't. His gloved hand flexed around her neck, she grimaced against the smooth leather that thrust her skull into the solidness of the mirror. She raised her hand to stop it but she was too slow. Too sore.

Splitting agony germinated in her temple and the ability to think became obsolete. She stumbled as he let her go and she found her back pressed against the coolness of the wall tile without even knowing she had fallen. Valerian. Her eyes blinked at the figure, fighting through the blood that poured down her eyebrow and forehead. Her heart beat viciously in her chest at the thought. He would take one look at her red eyes and he would know what she had done. He would want to know how. He would force her to do it again and again. She shrunk at the memory of his incessant need for control. The number of times she had practised her magic on his enemies until it was perfect. How he punished her with chains when it was not. The time it took to ward him from entering her thoughts. Not again. Never again.

Those walls in her mind she had shattered now were rebuilt with bricks and barbed wire. It was strong and impenetrable. He wasn't getting in. She wouldn't let him.

Loki. She thought of the only person that could aid her. Someone that couldn't be hurt or manipulated.

Yes?

Valerian.

Say no more. It's my pleasure, Dear Fury

"I'll see you soon, my love", Valerian smiled a feline-like smile and disappeared in a burst of green light. That trickster seemed all too willing to help her.

She breathed out heavily, taking down that wall she had built in her thoughts. It was exhausting to maintain. To fight against him. She had forgotten just how so.

"I see you are not making friends", Loki smirked with glee in his corporeal form she had summoned to aid her. Fury laid her head back against the tiled wall with a soft groan. blood dripped off into her hair and down her bare shoulder. She was a mess.

"Fuck", A groan echoed off the tile that was slippery with her blood.

The damn light on the ceiling was too bright and blurred her already fading sight. The tall figure entered her vision, she could tell who it was by the blackness of his hair.

"Disgusting", He observed with a disgruntled sigh, kneeling in front of her bloodied form.

"Thanks", She smirked weakly in her disorientation. It wasn't a good day to have gotten out of bed. Sleep. Sleep would be nice. A long sleep. Say a week or two.

"A goddess who cannot heal herself is truly pathetic", She hinted a distance in his voice that wasn't laced with his usual venom.

"I regret asking you for help", Fury commented with an uncertainty of whether she had said the words or she had imagined saying them. He muttered something under his breath as he pulled at the glass lodged in her palm, it came free with a tinge of pain. The God was more careful with the shard attached to her forehead, calculating in his movements to free it. It came free after a while but the price for its freedom brought an unstoppable gush of crimson into her eyes. She felt weak like she was fading into death from the sensation. She commended his poor effort.

"Good job",

"Shit", Loki cursed, quick to summon a tendril of green to heal her wounds. She felt them sew shut, felt the blood vacuum away from her skin like a magical cleanup. Though her wounds were healed her mind ached with no magical fix. Valerian, the master of alluding magical aid. His spells were vicious and cruel.

"Argh", A yelp escaped her lips from the blazing agony that split through her mind. Loki's eyes widened with surprise, darting around her form with haste. He couldn't heal her, not properly. No healer would help.

"It would be so easy to leave you to die...had you not stolen my magic I just might have", Loki hissed and gathered her body into his arms. For a moment she was flying, floating above the gravitational pull that kept her grounded. Pressed against the coolness of the black leather that seemed to bind the God together. His jaw was clamped shut with what looked like irritation. Lightheadedness consumed her.

"If you have somewhere else to be", Fury's mind became void of thought and reason, she forgot what it was to speak. "Then...", Her head lulled to the side, entranced by the gold swirls that clung to his shoulder against the black leather. It blinded her under the fluorescent lighting.

"...Shiny", Her thought escaped in a delirious statement that pummelled down upon her faster than his reckless abandon of care as he all but threw her onto the purple quilt.

"Heal yourself", He spoke without a second glance, tossing her clean vest at her to cover up her torso and then he disappeared. Such a caring creature.

Love you too,

She taunted with sarcasm, struggling to zip the tight vest onto her swollen body. The crimson blood on her palm made the black metal flimsy and hard to grasp. She held her breath as the kevlar strangled her body into submission. She groaned with irritation. Why throw her bloodied body onto the freshly made bed? She watched the red liquid drip from her hand in a slower stream and drop onto the violet material but it didn't stain. It disappeared into the fabric that remained its vibrant purple colour. A magical spill kit. Cool.

A faint knock bounded through her room, sounding louder with her delirium. Was it in her head?

"Come in", She voiced softly, comforted to see the handle turn and a figure walk in.

"Thor?", Her eyebrow raised at the hulking figure that was dressed in his long-sleeved armour. He must have just returned. Those blue eyes met her reddened skin and his pace quickened.

"The others are treating you well then?",

"Not one of your people could have snuck behind me, let alone leave unscathed...It was Valerian", Fury spat with grit in her voice, he had developed a habit for disappearing when she was in dire trouble.

"Valerian?", Thor hushed his tone, darting his eyes around the room.

"I cast him back to his realm", She lied calmly. He raised an eyebrow and asked

"You can do that?"

"I can do anything", Fury extinguished his curiosity, sighing at the weight that dropped beside her, almost on her. Close, always too close. She groaned almost as loudly as her beds detest. His hands gently traced the damage on her palm and skull. Wow. She wondered if he had moved that fast or had she just been so deluded that her brain failed to notice. His eyes were so worried and he touched her gingerly as if she would break. He spoke softly

"You'll need a healer",

"I'm cursed to bleed, they can't help that", She coughed lightly in favour of her insufferable migraine. Blood to blood she clamped her palm to the source of agony on her brow. Away. Go away. She pleaded to the pain but it didn't obey.

Fury felt herself fading, fading and gone. Unconsciousness gripped her for a moment and when her eyes fluttered open Thor was holding her with his blonde hair dishevelled from the swiftness he must have utilised to revive her. The silver scales on his arm pressed just under her breast and those ocean blue eyes hovered dangerously close. Warm. He was so warm. She hated the warm. The hot. The fire. She wanted to form ice in her palm and freeze whoever should test her. Then shatter them into shards. Cold was nice. The cold was different. Ice wasn't anything Valerian had tainted with dark magic.

Heal yourself

Her eyes closed: She was fire and she was ice. Hot and cold. Frost and flame. She was unbreakable, unable to bleed. From hellfire, she was forged and through a Frost Giant, she was reborn immortal. She was Fury and Vengeance...She was healed.

She felt Thor squirm against her while her crimson orbs burst open. Iridescent tendrils of magic ghosted through the wind, fading into nothing under the strip of sun that wavered between the drapes in a triangular burst. She felt so small against the hulking chest held firmly against her back. His worrisome expression triggered the tightness against her ribs. Those scales kept her grounded like a kite floating in the wind, his assurance was the string that kept her from floating into danger. It felt strange.

What could she make of that stare that was so piercing? Of his care? The closeness he presented? Staring. She was staring. She felt lightheaded but euphoric from the magic that rose from within her.

Fury cleared her throat and tore her sight to the soft skin on her palm, unscathed and stained in a diluted red stain. She smiled a wickedly satisfied grin. What a trick.

You're welcome

"Fury...Valerian was banished from Asgardian land. Why would he return to do this?", Thor examined her red-stained palm, sweeping away the dried substance with no avail. Valerian. The name sent alerts into her mind. It told her she had been on Asgard too long. It told her to run. She shrugged out of Thor's caring grasp.

"He's making sure I pay my penance...That brilliant pyrokinesis power I had...let's just say it wasn't always mine",

Evil little thief

Thor was confused, she could tell by the vacancy in his eyes and the slight tilt of his head. She explained.

"I have always housed the ability to set things alight. That was always mine. I could light a small flame, kindle a fire. Nothing more. Valerian gave me purpose.", Fury's fingers traced the brand slapped against her skin. "Through a blood contract, he bound me to the heart of Vanaheim, a dying 'star'. Only it wasn't a star, it was a catalyst of magic, a blue flame that had burned eternally. His people couldn't bear it. They combusted from the sheer heat. I, however, was fireproof. He made me strong in exchange for my hand and when I died. The star."

Those blue eyes widened and he replied softly.

" To grant you the star of Vanaheim Valerian would have to be-"

" An overlord and he was", Fury finished his thought.

"...And that would make you a woman of high stature"

A chuckle escaped her.

"No. I was his wife. Women are not worthy of crowns, not in the company of demons. Not in the eyes of a husband who seeks subjugation. It didn't matter the rank or power, he wanted everyone to kneel. It was why he stole magic through contracts...now he just kills for it."

"I stumbled into that dark castle in the forestry on Vanaheim. They were frightening people. But there was a woman. A sorceress ruled that land."

"Any remnants of that time were hidden in the vaults. Crowns, gowns and jewellery. It no longer existed when I lived there",

"...Fury that wasn't a time ago...Vanaheim was where I disappeared to".

"...What?", She rasped with gritted teeth. Stirring thoughts crossed her mind. What business would he have with Valerian?

Thor rose from the bed, crossing his arms over his chest with a conflicted expression.

"Odin has reconsidered his banishment from Asgardian land, without Loki, there is no enforcing it.", He breathed out and she answered.

"There is no allegiance with Valerian! He would have already found a way to sneak into Asgard without Odin's permission.", Fury halted her thought, matching eyes with Thor. "Why was he banished?",

"He tried to start a war with Loki, he lost",

Valerian, the overlord, her husband. Surely he knew it was impossible to attain the magic of the most powerful sorcerer know to exist...But it wasn't unattainable. She had them. If he knew it he would wage war for them, he would kill for them. He would kill her. He'd kill them all to get her.

"How long until he is allowed back into Asgard?", Fury asked with that migraine assuming it's prior position. Thor replied.

"Two weeks from Friday",

The silver-haired woman examined the man like he had grown another head. Was he serious?

"So, the day we expect another Asgardian to be kidnapped, Valerian can walk freely on Asgard?",

It's frustrating, isn't it? How dim-witted one man can be.

While you're eavesdropping, you were eager to help me. What are you scheming?

Dear Fury, Did I forget to mention that Valerian has been my greatest nemesis for quite some time? He will undoubtedly try to take my power from you. I suggest running. I think you'll like Muspelheim, I hear they have fire dragons.

I hate you

However, will I live?

"Then we train for war, every day. No excuses.", A growl emitted in place of her voice and Thor looked at her with a worrisome expression. A shadow had cursed her in that bathroom, she could only imagine what power he had in person.

"First you must face the council of Gods, they've gathered to collectively decide if you're worthy of this immortality Loki gave you. Be in the hall in an hour", He seemed tired of their conversation, more distant than he had been. A council of Gods? She was going to undoubtedly make an idiot of herself. Perhaps they'd burn the vampire. Or send her to some ungodly place away from Valerian. They'd be safe then.

Valerian. Eyes of black with a gold ring where his pupil should be. He found her. His tanned skin brushed against her, she tried to move but she couldn't. Tried to scream but he had silenced her under his magic. Fear cultivated into terror. She couldn't breathe. She watched him destroy Asgard to punish her. To teach her a lesson. Terrified cries filled her ears but she could only watch. Watch and weep for the souls that were buried beneath the pile of corpses that paved the city like cobblestones on a pathway. Flicking filled her ears. Like pages being turned and she was pulled from the nightmare.

Awareness consumed her form. She felt the slippery satin sheet underneath her and breathed out a sigh of relief.

"That was an awful dream",

The voice almost scared her half to death. Her orbs opened. Emerald eyes stared back at her with a humorous light. His long body was only a finger-length away. She saw he had propped himself up with pillows to soften the headboard against his spine. A simple tunic and dark pants dressed him with no real sense of royalty. His long overcoat was black with soft shades of green hemming. It was uncanny how the unimpressive article polished the outfit with regal elegance. He was reading a blue-covered book with his dark hair in slight dishevelment. He spoke after a moment of her murderous glare.

"I thought you ought to know that Odin is expecting you at that meeting in 10 minutes",

She adjusted her position to prop herself up against the headboard. Her eyebrow raised and she stared at the man.

It was strange that he had positioned himself so close to her. The only closeness he ever displayed was to taunt or threaten. She had the feeling he was to look at but never touch. This occurrence held no sense of threat or warning. She wondered what he was up to.

"Loki?", Her voice was low and quickly caught his attention before he flicked to another page. His dark eyebrow raised at her voice with his white skin almost glowing in its ethereal beauty. She wanted to see just one ugly god, maybe even one slightly obese. One that had even a hair out of place. His thin lips murmured.

"Yes"

"What the hell are you doing in my bed?!", Fury scolded him, ripping the book that had belonged to her from his grasp. He smiled with those blindly white teeth.

"You seem content with summoning me in your sleep. It's become quite annoying. I thought I might as well just stay", Loki chided, crossing his ankles over one another.

"At this point, I'm almost certain you're lying", Fury returned his smirk that faded at her words. She jumped out of bed and made a quick stride toward the bathroom.

"You've got me. A thousand years I lived and I just can't get past the half-breed vampire out of a lifetime of countless goddesses.", Loki dramatically materialised in her path, halting her quick movement. His ghostly form taunted her. "One would think that the whole executioner trickery would deter me or stealing my powers perhaps but no that only made me want you more. I can't think or dream without seeing your face. It haunts me.",

It took all she had not to laugh but she couldn't let him win. She thought about the smell of parchment and leather and suddenly he was corporeal in front of her

"Then do something about it", She crossed her arms, daring him to even touch her without grimacing. He blinked.

"I beg your pardon?", Loki stumbled for words. This was brilliant. She taunted closely.

"I said", Fury hovered closer to his face, enough so that she could feel his breath on her cheek. It was intimate and confronting. Everything he hated. "Then do something about it",

He was silent as his eyes bore into her unyielding orbs. That smile painted his lips like it always had, an even more stubborn smile.

"You would never be so fortunate", The words disappeared faster than he did.

Oh, no. Was it something I said?