Please don't hate me. I know I haven't updated. I know most people probably left this half finished story behind. But I did a brief chapter today in hopes of gaining more motivation and support for this fic again. Maybe I could start writing for thirty minutes every evening... who knows. Anyway, I hope you guys like this.

Chapter Nine

Hollow Path

All time seemed to stop for Freyja as she watched the weapon protrude from Loki, wet and glistening with his blood. She was vaguely aware of a bellowing sound and a high pitched whistling sound. Her mind struggled to comprehend while she watched the scene before her. Loki lifted his hand with a grenade and growled, "See you in Hel!" As Kurse was sucked in, Loki narrowly managed to escape the fate of being crushed in a portal to another dimension.

When he fell on the ground everything snapped back into focus for Freyja and she realized the sounds she heard were both Thor's and her own screams. Sharp rocks dug into her palms and shins as they stuck up from the sand, drawing her own blood as she scrambled to his side. She reached him as she babbled, "No, nononono! Loki! Loki, you're going to be okay!" She felt her throat begin to close as her heart beat faster. She tried to lay her shaking hands over his wound, pressing down hard to try to stem the flow. "I can fix this. I can fix this." She gazed in his eyes as her own darted over his face manically.

"Freyja-"

"Thor, you have to help me stop the bleeding!" Freyja shouted, her voice growing more hoarse as her panic rose. "Thor, please!"

Thor raised his brother's head as he knelt by his side, "Loki-"

"I was a fool," Loki nodded, choking as he spoke. The pain that blossomed through his chest was almost enough to distract him from the horror that was the fact he was drowning in his own blood. He looked at Thor as he spoke again.

"Father would know what you have done today." Thor promised, tears beginning to sting his eyes.

"I didn't do it for him," Loki replied, meeting Thor's gaze before he looked back to Freyja. "You have to go. You have to stop Malekeith."

Freyja shook her head, feeling an acute sense of dizziness though she was still. Her own body felt as if it were both the most extreme flame and most bitter ice in all the nine realms. She croaked, "You can't… you can't leave. I need you. Everything I have done was always for you." She was beginning to sob. "Loki, please, I'm sorry. Don't go… please, I love you." Freyja begged him.

Loki looked at her and clasped her hand, "I'm sorry, Freyja. I'm sorry." He felt his lids grow heavy and the pain began to fade alongside his strength. He couldn't hold himself up any longer and he didn't care to. Now was the time for his rest.

Freyja felt when his heart stopped beating. She stared at his body in horror and froze, trembling. A new scream of anguish filled her but her throat was too tight. She couldn't even breathe, her lungs burning as she looked to her brother.

Thor laid his hand on her shoulder, "Freyja… If we don't go after Malekif then he will have died in vain. We have to go."

Freyja looked back to the body of the man she had given her soul to more times than she could count. She whispered, "We can't leave him here. He doesn't deserve to be left here." How strange it was to her that her voice sounded almost like it did when she had been a scared little girl and Thor had to promise no monsters would come for her.

"We will come back for him. But we need to go now." Thor promised, starting to rise. He turned back to pull Jane close while he waited on Freyja to piece herself back together. His heart never knew such grief as it did today. He thought he knew what grief was when Freyja died. Then he thought he knew what it was like when Loki was lost to the universe. Now, having seen both his mother and his brother's bodies, Thor knew they were actually gone. And his heart was filled with tears he would not have time to shed.

Freyja moved to close Loki's eyes, whispering, "It should have been me… I would give anything for it to be me." She leaned to press a tender kiss to his forehead, "I will always love you." She closed her eyes and dug deep into herself, the raw wounds of her soul prominent and deep. But more than the pain, Freyja felt something else deep in her. She hungered for revenge. The need to see those who had taken so much from her gave her the strength to get to her feet. She opened her hand to call her spear to her, her helm manifesting onto her head as she looked at her brother. "Malekif is mine."

"Freyja, no. It's too dangerous-"

"Mother is dead because of me. Loki is dead because of me. I have to avenge them. I have to hear him beg for his life before I slit his throat. Otherwise I will break and nothing will ever pull me back together again," Freyja told him, her voice low and strained as she spoke through clenched jaws.

Thor shook his head, "This vision you have is a hollow one. It will never leave you satisfied, but if this is what must happen to save the realms then I will allow you to choose your own path." Thor called to be taken to Midgard then, Jane held close and Freyja on the fringe of the bridge, alienated by her own choice.