This chapter brought to you by "Let It Go" from Frozen. You may or may not be able to see the influence -wink-. Not as fast an update as last time but I had to do some major editing on this one. I wrote it at around three in the morning, and it suffered from my lack of caffeine and sleep. Anyway, on to the thanks, just two this time, but an awesome two so cyber cookies go to:

bella cullen the original
Nessa191

You guys rock and make me feel so happy. I hope this chapter is more to everyone's liking and please R&R! I really wanna know what people think of this!

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His Time and Her Time

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Jane was up first. She all but bounded out of the room, a mixture of happiness and anxiety on her face. Thor caught her up in a tight embrace, kissing her softly. Loki groaned in the background. Sometimes he wished he had someone, just so he could torment his brother with overt displays. But a part of him couldn't really begrudge his brother his love. He would want to show the world as well, if he had something that pure. Jane launched into an explanation of what had happened. How Malekith had broken into the apartment and taken out both Riley and James. She mentioned how Riley had been going for a knife, even as she was struck and Loki felt another shock of pride. Why did he care so much what this human did? It was stupid to be feeling pride for so low a being. Still, she was beginning to earn his very grudging respect and he was unsure how he felt about that fact.

Jane had to pause as she spoke of James, her eyes glistening with tears as she described it. Apparently, he hadn't even had time to realize something was wrong before on of the soldiers had ended his life. Both Thor and Loki growled at this. It was the worst crime one could commit in battle. You always faced your enemy. Loki had a personal code about what was allowed after that, sneaky underhanded tricks being his stock and trade, but he always let his opponent know that his death was imminent. To simply kill a man, no warning, no chance to defend himself, it was despicable and worthy of the messy death the soldiers had suffered. He shook himself out of his thoughts, rejoining the conversation in time to hear about how Malekith had tried to convince Jane out from under the table by breaking a few more of Riley's minor bones. Jane guessed a couple fingers and a rib from the sound of things, but she couldn't be sure.

Loki rolled his eyes and the story paused yet again as Jane inquired several times of the the state of Riley's own health. It took several reassurances from both Thor and himself, as well as a very quick account of his treatment before she would move on. Finally, she came to the meat of the subject. Malekith had listened for her breathing, something that Loki could remember doing more than once, and dragged her from under the table. He'd proceeded to threaten and bluster, Loki felt safe tuning this part out, rejoining the conversation once she'd finished relating how scared she was, and perked up at the mention of the Aether. So he hadn't yet absorbed it. That meant it was still vulnerable. It was enough for him to devote his entire attention to the conversation.

After he's pulled the Aether from her, he'd tossed her to the side, intent on killing her once he'd absorbed the Aether. His men had been moving the bodies to the side, so that when the inevitable fight happened, they wouldn't be underfoot. Jane remembered thinking that Riley had been dead, she was so still, her breathing practically stilled. But that was when she saw the rings appear on the girl's exposed wrists and ankles. They had simply blackened, the line starting at one side of her wrist and twisting around to form perfect circles on her skin. She'd twitched slightly, her face screwing up into something like a mixture of pain and fear before relaxing into corpse-like stillness. It took another minute or two to get to the part he really wanted to hear. Jane shook as she recounted the battle.

It had been so quick and terrifying. Riley had begun to move in earnest, her hand searching out James' next to her. She'd tried to wake him, not realizing he was dead. After the realization set in, her body had stilled once again, but it had felt wrong somehow, like the lack of wind before a thunder storm. Then, she'd simply been standing, her skin blue and carved with runes and lines. Her eyes had turned a icy white, ringed with red and her face had been a mask of anger. Jane remembered feeling afraid for herself. Riley looked like an avenging angel, come to take retribution against those who'd wronged her. She remembered the first charge, the two elves had run forward, weapons firing, but the energy seemed to just stop, fading before it hit her. She'd opened her mouth in an ungodly scream and whipped them aside, flash freezing them both. The scream never stopped. She must've taken a breath at some point, no one can scream that long without air, but Jane couldn't remember it. She just remembered the hellish sound, reverberating around her as body after body fell around her, and then there was silence. She'd looked up, seeing Riley looking down at her own hand, the anger finally bleeding away from her features. Malekith had come to his feet at some point, he was now holding his shoulder. Jane said icicles had been embedded in it. Loki felt a smirk cross his face at that. She'd actually hurt him then, good girl.

Jane paused, her whole body shaking in her lover's arms. She had to stop and gather her thoughts before continuing. It had been horrible to watch this far, but she knew she might be needed. She hiccuped as a sob fought its way out of her. Loki wondered at this, listening as she apologized to them both for losing the Aether and not protecting Riley better. The little mortal actually felt responsible for this? He sighed softly, waiting for her over active conscience to subside. After a few minutes of calm breathing and whispered reassurances from Thor, she continued. Malekith had pulled one of the ice shards from his arm, dropping it into the pink tinged stain. Jane remembered being confused by the color of his blood. But as she looked up, she saw Riley's hand was practically pouring blood, the skin looking beyond abused. And then Malekith had attacked, swinging a club like weapon into her side. She flew into the table, her body bending into an unnatural angle, carrying the table over in its momentum and causing her to tumble to the floor where they'd found her. Jane had taken that moment to move over to her, ready to shield her with her own body if needed. But that was then they'd arrived and she'd dropped into blessed unconsciousness.

The retelling proved too much for her composure and she collapsed into tears against her lover's chest. It was enough to drive Loki from the room. He had known that Riley had used his power, had taken out far more opponents than she should have been able to, but the description had sounded like something out of a nightmare. What had his power done to her? Why had she been screaming? What had she seen when she was inside him?

That thought brought something to the fore of him mind, something he'd been ignoring to this point. He could still feel a glimmer of her presence inside himself. It was an odd sensation. It was like a channel had opened, a clear moving stream, held grounded by a bed of smooth stones. It always seemed to come back to that with her. She'd been stalwart, if shaken, when they'd first arrived. She'd suffered his every whim and question with unshakable purpose. It was as if she were a stone, surrounded by water, grounded but fluid, adaptable. And now he felt it, within himself. She had left something in the place of his anger, when she'd taken it. She'd left a part of herself behind. It was oddly comforting, but disturbing at the same time. What would this do to him? What had it done to her? There were too many questions and no answers. He felt himself beginning to circle frustration, his mind spinning around all the possible outcomes of when she awoke. He knew one thing for certain, it would not be easy.

Riley was back on the beach, but the water was no longer green. It was blue and clear and cool against her skin, small pebbles gently pressing into her back, arms and legs, massaging the cold and pain from her. It was like something was slowly draining out of her, not leaving, just separating. It traveled through the water, leaving a visible trail of fast melting frost in its wake, going to take refuge in the icy depths of her power. She knew of those depths, knew they existed, in theory, but had never dared dive that deep. Her grandmother had warned her once, when she was a child, that sometimes stories existed for a reason. It had been after her education about the Norse mythology, the frost giants, the gods battling against each other. It had all fascinated her, but nothing more than the power of the Trickster God. She'd asked one day, if she could one day be that powerful. If, instead of mild energy work and kitchen witchery, she could be a real sorceress like in her books. Her grandmother had merely smiled and said...

"People aren't meant to have that kind of power little bean." The voice was so close to her, like it was coming from the warm sand under her head. It wasn't until the feet dug into the sand beside her that she realized she wasn't alone. She sat up out of the water, slowly scooting back to sit even with the older woman.

"Mammaw, what is this place? How are you here?" She turned to look into the wrinkled face and felt a soft sadness well up in her. She'd missed that face so much.

"This is you sweety." She gestured to the vast ocean. "This is your soul, your power. Look how much there is. I always said you were somethin' special didn't I?" She smiled, the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes deepening.

"I never did understand what you meant by that. I still don't. How can this be me? Where does it stop? How is it all here?" She looked around, feeling a breeze kick up as her worry rose.

"Cause there's more to you than there is to you. Remember that line? That movie used to make you laugh so much." The old woman laughed softly, the breeze picking up fine tendrils of white hair.

"Yeah, The Producers. You made me watch it after I didn't get into the school play. It rained for a week straight." She smiled, the wind settling into a gentle swirl. "I guess you're gonna tell me that was me too huh?" She looked over, a wry smile on her face.

"Nope, it was April. But seriously bean, you need to figure this out. There's a man out there, like nothin' you've ever met. He's a difficult one, I'll grant ya, but baby girl he is worth every headache. You've seen him, the true him, felt him. You know what I mean." Her grandmother nudged her, wiggling her eyebrows at the young woman.

"Mammaw, you seriously need to stop doing that. One, you're old, so creepy. Second, you're dead, so eww. And yeah, I know what you mean. I did feel something. It was like I was here, in my mind, and I was pulled to somewhere else. It was dark there Mammaw, dark and cold and full of pain and sadness. I thought I was gonna drown in it. And then I came to and James was gone. I killed them Mammaw, I killed them all. Every last faceless elf. How could I do that?" She looked over at the woman, expecting the wrinkled face of her grandmother, but it was her mother, care worn but beautiful, staring back at her with a small smile on her face.

"We all do things we aren't proud of sweet heart. They were a threat, they'd killed your friend and meant to do the same to you. You defended yourself. Now, I'm not saying you couldn't have done it better, maybe a little less screaming and bleeding on the carpet, but still, its the thought that counts. You wanted to keep people safe and make sure that people who did wrong got what they deserved. Remember what I told you when you stepped on that bee that stung your friend Billy? Sometimes you get Karma, and sometimes, you are Karma. Get it?" She winked, reaching an arm around her daughter's shoulders and pulling her close.

Riley closed her eyes, feeling the wind kick up even harder, the bright sunshine started to cloud over, the temperature beginning to drop. She wanted so much for this to be real, for the world to just stop, leave her behind so that she could live here, in her mind forever, wrapped in the warmth and love of her teachers and family.

"Oh hush now love. I know. You miss us and think it isn't fair that we were taken from you. That we left you to figure this out on you own. And you're right, it's not fair. But neither is life. The key to surviving it, and staying sane, is finding someone who can help you even the odds." Her mother's voice sounded faint, growing more and more distant by the second, and another hand replaced the warm smooth flesh of her mother. It was cold and heavy, like metal and leather, rubbing against her, pushing her back until she was laying down, rain and wind whipping above her. It was cool, but not cold, and, though she missed the calm sunshine, she thrilled at the change. She opened her eyes to see the grinning face of Loki above her. His hair was plastered back against his head and water dripped from his face, trailing down to his lips and chin. It sent a spark of pure desire down her spine and she felt something click into place. He helped her to her feet, holding her so close their faces were almost touching.

"Are you finished? Because we've got work to do."

Thor found Loki sitting beside the bed, his hands steepled together as he regarded the changing expression on Riley's face. It seemed to be flashing through an entire conversation's worth of moods, all in a few minutes. Whatever she was dreaming of, it was definitely important. He pulled a small chest up next to the one his brother was seated on and waited for the other man to greet him. It took a moment but Loki eventually turned to look at him.

"Do you need something Thor?" He sounded tired and confused, something Thor hadn't heard in far too long. It gave his heart a pang of hope, hope that his brother, the man he'd grown up to know, was still in there somewhere.

"You seem, distracted, and different. What do you know that you aren't telling me?" He tried to keep the suspicion out of his voice, make it sound conversational, but could tell he had failed.

"Nothing world ending. It is personal, and I would prefer it remain that way." Loki moved to turn again, his mind already drifting back to whatever he had been considering before Thor had spoken.

"Loki, please. I know your better than you think. Something is troubling you, something you cannot figure out on your own. Perhaps I could help." He knew he sounded like a hopeful fool, but he felt like he was on the verge of regaining something he thought long gone. He expected a fight, a battle of wits and attitudes until Loki simply grew tired of his stubbornness. But the other man simply wilted, turning, a look of almost childish confusion on his face.

"She distracts me brother. I do not understand how one mortal could get further inside me than all the most talented magicians combined. Not ever Thanos was able to do what she has done. It should anger me, but the anger will not come to me. All I feel is pride and a kind of grudging respect that I never thought I would feel for anyone. But she is mortal, a midgardian, below me in every way. So how is it that she has done this thing that so many have attempted?" He looked truly lost, he knew. He shouldn't be sharing this, least of all with Thor, who would take it as an opportunity to play the elder brother once more. But he needed to get it out of his own mind before it drove him mad.

"I do not understand brother. What has she done?" Thor hated to ask, he feared that his brother would set on him like a wolf on a rabbit, but the man just sighed, seemingly relieved to simply be speaking with someone. He drew in a breath, closing his eyes as tears glimmered in them. It was heart breaking to watch, the battle of emotions that he fought to control. Thor respected, perhaps for the first time, what a complicated being his brother truly was. He had always made light of his emotions, playing off his magical abilities as simply a crutch to make up for his lack of physical power, but now he saw, it was power in and of itself. The only difference between Loki's magick and Mjolnir is that, if his brother lost focus for even a moment, his magick would swallow him whole. He began to understand now, how, perhaps, some of his brother's trouble, was, in point of fact, his fault. It was a painful realization, that he had caused some of the damage he so hated, simply by ignoring the needs of someone who'd been depending on him.

"Thor, you know nothing of magick, or magical powers, so I will attempt to be brief. At the heart of every magician, there is a well spring of power. This well takes many shapes, shifting to fit the user. My own well has long been a torrential place, a maelstrom of conflicting emotions and ideas. It is why I have always tended toward mischief, easy and relaxing. If another user were to reach my well, touch that part of my soul, they would know everything about me. They would see my memories, know all my secrets, understand my power, and, if they were so inclined, steal it from me. Riley has done this. She has reached my well. It happened while she was unconscious, during the struggle against Malekith. I don't think she understood what she was doing, what she was seeing. Her soul ran to the first point of power it could find, to hide from what was happening around her and stay safe from the stronger power that was seeking to conquer her." He took a breath, his hand pressed to his chest as if it hurt. Thor tried to keep the concern from his face, hide the fact that he wanted nothing more than to take his brother in his arms and hold on until he returned to the intelligent, funny and reliable man he'd known. Loki saw this and sighed, his eyes closing again, clearly fighting with himself about going any further. Thor began to form an argument, hoping to at least keep him talking, but it proved unnecessary.

"I said before that a strong enough user could steal my power from me, and that is true, but only with intent. Riley, has taken something from me, without intent. She merely saw it, judged that it did not belong, and pulled it away with her soul when it returned to her own body. But it was not my power, not truly. It was what I had convinced myself was necessary to remain strong." He looked up at his brother, not bothering to hide the tears anymore. He was more confused and conflicted than he could ever remember feeling.

"What did she take brother." Thor's face was a mask of interest and mild anger. He had a sudden urge to shake the woman awake and make her answer for herself.

"She took my pain. All the years of torment and shunning, it's gone." Loki's voice was almost to quiet to hear, but the message reached through none the less. Thor didn't know how to respond. His mind was reeling. No wonder he was acting so odd, something he'd carried for centuries, according to him at least, had been removed. He was trying to figure out who to be now. This was something Thor knew well. He started forward, intent on hugging his sibling until he could no longer breathe, only to be stopped by an invisible wall. A small smile appeared on his brother's lips, bringing back the face of the enemy he had known. "Not yet, brother. There is still much to do. Leave me now, I need to think." He turned his back entirely, his gaze returning to Riley in a decided gesture of dismissal.

Riley ran after Loki on the beach. The rain all but blinded her as she tried to keep up but he never seemed to hear her when she asked him to slow down. He would just disappear around a bend or over a hill and she would fall, feeling suddenly exhausted, only to reappear beside her, helping her up with that same grin and pulling her along behind him once again. She wondered what the point of it was, they never seemed to get anywhere, but she was no longer feeling the crushing agony of loss and sadness, so she kept running. Perhaps she could outrun it all, the pain of James' death. The quiet sadness over her mother and grandmother. The fear of the world around her. Maybe she could just live here, run from it all and find a place to build a new life. She wouldn't really mind living in the raid. Sure it was a little cold, but the air around it was hot and muggy, so it was really like living under a water sprinkler in the summer. So long as she had a roof to keep her bed dry and a fire place to dry off by, she could be pretty damn happy here.

She'd slowed down as she thought, her wanderings weighing her down so that her feet felt like lead as she lifted them. She looked up, Loki was nothing but a shadow in front of her now, and she felt a sudden pang of fear, kicking herself for getting distracted. She redoubled her efforts, digging into the sand around her and shooting forward, her only goal, catching the green clad god before he left her behind again. It would seem that this was the key because before she knew it, she had drawn even with him, and then left him behind, racing ahead of him, down to the shore line and into the shallows. She didn't know why it felt right to do this, it just did. She looked up, her already soaked shirt now clinging to her chest and felt a stupid smile cross her face. Loki stood above her, everything but his tight leggings, magically gone. He slid down into the water beside her, his body radiating a kind of pleasant cold, like what you get on the outside of a pop can at a pool party. He didn't speak, merely sat beside her, one of his hands finding hers in the water and holding on tight. He held them up, showing her that the black ring on her wrist matched the white runic markings on his. She gasped, looking over at him, her face feeling suddenly hot.

"So it is you." She couldn't keep the smile from her face as something settled in her chest, her heart felt almost weightless. No, weightless wasn't the right word for it. It was like the sensation you get when you are in water that is the perfect temperature. She felt, just right. There was no other way to put it. She felt ready. She didn't want to go, didn't want to leave the grinning god that seemed to exist only in her head, but she knew she had to wake up sooner or later. She gathered her breath and her will power and took a running dive into the deeper waters, swimming as far down as she could. The water got colder, heavier, she had to fight for each stroke. A light was shimmering on the sea bed, taunting her, teasing her with its nearness. She felt herself grin, her arms suddenly feeling feather light as she powered through the water, holding onto the rock at the bottom. The light was coming from a small crack in it. Through the crack she could see herself. Small time kitchen witch with delusions of grandeur that she had always been. Well, that was about to change. She reared back, driving both hands with superhuman force onto the rock, releasing all the pent up power into her conscious self, rejoining her body at last.

Well, there it is, Chapter 6. Things are starting to develop and I hope you guys hang on to see what comes next! Please R&R and let me know what you think so I know what to fix and what to keep!