~ Chapter 11 ~

Asgard rumbled from it's foundation. The water around the home of the Gods was stormy and huge waves crashed against the bridge leading to the Bifrost. The skies had darken to a thunderstorm and the horizon was burning.

Heimdall stood outside the Bifrost and stared into the water. He tried to see what was coming closer but all he saw was a huge shadow that seemed to block everything out. In the palace he could see the heated confrontation in the Throne room. But what disturbed him most was that for a moment Loki Odinson had disappeared from his eyes. It wasn't like normal when he would become a bland and blurry place in space, he was completely gone.

The dungeons was empty and the remains of a massacre stained the stone room.

A unearthly shadow was lurking in Asgard and he had no idea who – or what – it was.

The Guardian wasn't sure what his next action should be. His duty told him to go face the danger inside Asgard's walls, the other – his honor – told him to remain where he was and keep an eye on the shadow that was spinning under the sea, and around him.

All of a sudden, like thunder going through the air and hitting the waves, the sea broke and from the murky depth rose the Midgard snake, Jormungandr. It's endless body rising and circling around in the water as it let out a roar to the sky. The four huge teeth like horns at the end of his mouth pierced the darkness and clamped together before the snake dived for the Bifrost, taking the building with him to the bottom of the sea.

Just outside the walls of Asgard came an answering howl. Fenrir howled toward the moon before the monstrous wolf jumped into Asgard and brought ruin and destruction on the lower levels of Asgard.

"Stop where you are!" Some yelled at Loki as he walked across the empty court yard. He turned around to see who was talking to him, but saw no one. No one was there and all he saw was the empty structure of the royal palace.

With no thought to the voice, Loki walked away from a sea of blood, guts, and body parts of the warriors that had tried to stop him.

Loki walked up the long stairs to the palace when a tremor rocked him and he looked out over the city. He saw Jormungandr's body ruling the sea but he didn't know if it meant anything or if it was normal.

He continued his journey up the stairs and even as he came to the top he saw no one.

"What's happening?" Odin demanded as he rushed to the open terrace that over looked Asgard. Thor close behind him. What they saw was short of destruction and horror.

"Ragnarok." Odin whispered as he took in Jormungandr in the sea, and Fenrir inside Asgard.

"Dear." Frigga yelled as she came running through the throne room. She had been her way to talk to her husband about Loki when she saw Jormungandr through the window and then Fenrir. She ran to the throne room in fear for her husband.

Odin turned to catch his wife as she threw herself at him.

"Oh thank Gods, you are safe." she cried against his chest. "I saw Fenrir and feared the worst."

"It's all right." Odin calmed her. "I'm here."

"What's happening?" Frigga asked her husband and son in fear.

The sickening splash of death echoed through the Throne room and blood seeped out from the pillars that separated the terrace from the room. Footsteps came closer until they stopped.

All color drained from Frigga's face as she watched her youngest son come out from the blowing drapes decorating the throne room.

Loki walked straight to the railing and watched Asgard in the burning red light of fire and death. He didn't even acknowledge his family who stood only meters away. His torn, bleeding, and dirty appearance silencing them.

"Ah! Asgard is burning." he said in a distant voice that sounded happy. Jormungandr rose from the sea and attacked Asgard itself now. Loki held out his arms in greeting toward the snake, his face calm and serene in the chaos that surrounded him.

"Stop where you are!" guards shouted as they came through the blood sea inside and lowered their spears.

Loki had barely begun to turn around when the guards were torn in half and their remains spilled over the floor. The broken trickster looked around for the voice but saw nothing. He didn't see the blood soaking into the drapes by the pillars.

Instead he slowly started to dance around in the red light, bathing in it, supporting it, letting it embrace him. His eyes distant and cold. Arms spread wide as he spun around as a child would.

"Brother?" Thor called carefully as he stepped forward. "Loki?"

Before he had even come ten steps closer the image of Hela flashed between them and a force strong enough to cut his skin hit him. Thor felt the sting of the cuts but was fixed on reaching his Loki.

His parents called after him and each time he got closer to Loki, Hela would flash before his eyes and hurt him. The only thing that protected him from the same fate as the guards was Mjolnir; the hammer waiting for him to call for it in his room.

It broke his heart to see what had happened to Loki in the dungeons. His abused body bore the evidence of countless assaults and – much to his horror – rapes.

What remained of Loki's clothes were stained with semen and dirt. Dried blood from injuries and ripped flesh. The undoubtedly broken mind that couldn't perceive the dead around him. Blood stained footprints marked Loki's dance across the stone floor and where Loki should have seen them several times, he showed no sign of having seen them.

To Loki, they weren't even there.

Thor took another step closer and this time he was sent right into a pillar that broke from the impact. Stones fell over him in rumble chaos.

Frigga screamed as she watched her eldest son being buried by the stones.

Odin stepped around his wife and called Gungnir to his hand. Frigga grabbed onto his arm right away.

"What are you doing?" she screamed at Odin.

"I'm putting a stop to Ragnarok." he said firmly.

"You are going to kill our son!" Frigga accused him. "Not only did you abandon Loki when you had the chance but now you want to kill him?"

"He's not our son." Odin roared at her. He couldn't waste precious time. "He's bringing Asgard to its destruction right before our eyes. He has to be stopped." he pulled his arm from her grip but the Goddess stepped in front of him.

"I will not allow it. Not over my dead body." Frigga was washed in a shower of blood. She blinked as her vision of a horrified Odin was her last vision before everything grew dark. The Queen of Hel calling her soul.

Odin stared in fear and sorrow at the corpse of his beloved wife. He shook his head to clear his head. He might have lost his family but he had to save Asgard somehow, and if it meant killing Loki, then so be it.

From underneath the pillar, Thor tried to push himself free. Another quake rocked Asgard and some of the rocks fell away. With luck he pushed aside the piece that laid over him and he searched for his family and Loki.

He heard the crush of bones just as well as he felt it in his body as he watched the Fenrirwolf crushing his father between it's giant fangs. The gray wolf's head sticking up from the other side of the railing, it's monstrous paws supported by Asgard itself.

His mother lay in a pool of blood and limbs not far from where he had last seen her.

Loki was standing on top of the railing, his arms spread wide and smiling with glazed eyes.

TBC