Once again not good with battle scenes. Hope everyone enjoys but not the ending yet but next chapter is the end. One more chapter after this people! How will life change now? I have no story waiting in the wings this time. I might take a small break updating 'something so wrong, yet so right' at least once a week and rebuild my resources but I won't be gone long as I have a few ideas in mind still!

Sorceress of the trees: yeah he's still naked. Lol

Doctor Loki love: holy no's. lol. You're so passionate I love it!

Loki's dreamer: he came in sooner yup but that's because it is almost the end! No crazy twists in this one. Now just need to sum it up.

Sidney love fiction: yay my alternate ending is loved! Thanks

Doctor-tardis-yes: I had the same problem with the reviews. I had to go to the site to see them.

Chapter 16

Loki watched as she was pulled from the room. Manhandled roughly by Demos' seemingly second in command and flanked by several guards. He watched until he could no longer see her. "I hope you enjoyed her while you could." Demos said watching Loki watch her. "It seems both your deaths will come soon and you won't have to wait long to reunited in the after life." Demos laughed. He glared as Demos slid Odin from the throne and sat in it himself.

Loki then glanced to the one he had asked to prepare him a circle. He saw them carving into the floor a signet of some kind. As time grew longer the circles signet with all its etching was complete and chains where driven outside it into the floor. Loki heard the sound of approaching footsteps and back appeared Cephera and her captors. They held a chest that Loki assumed was the item or perhaps more then one item from the vault. His eyes drew to Cephera and she was looking back at him. "I'm sorry." She said as she was carted passed him.

Demos waited for the chest to be propped beside him and stared at Cephera a moment. "Strip her." He said. Loki fought against his chains hard as thoughts of what they might be planning to do to her entered his mind. The thought of her being defiled in anyway causing him great heart ache and mental madness. She cried out and struggled against them as they were not kind in tearing from her her uniform and leaving her bare. He damned Odin for having sealed away his magic. He damned Cephera for being too kind and putting everyone else's lives, who were in that room, ahead of hers. She fell to her knees covering herself and her checks had turned a red he hadn't seen before. Humiliation perhaps.

One of the guard promptly put his hands to his pants. "Fool." Demos said to him before he could so much as undo any part of them. "You are not to touch her flesh for a reason. You think to have her?" He was glaring and the guard slunk back away from Loki's songbird. "Chain her in the circle." She was ripped from the floor and chained down promptly. She knelt there her arms spread wide and her body on display but to Loki's relief he didn't seem interested in her carnally. Demos got from his seated spot and pulled from his boot a dagger.

Loki had no other choice but to watch as he cut her with shallow cuts along her arms, legs, abdomen and back. He cut her more than once in those places and Loki saw her face contort as she held back her cries of pain. Her blood slowly oozing from each cut. "If you heal I will cut the prince in much worse places." He warned her. "I need you unbound by spells for this circle and so your magic remains yours but remember it's not just your life at stake here. If you should flee I will kill everyone and I will not be quick about it. I may have saved you from my men but I cannot guarantee the same for the other woman in the room." Loki swallowed. Both Sif and his mother were presently chained up near the far wall. "Oh and if you think to kill yourself by all means feel free. If you die within that circle the spell is complete either way. I just want to watch you die slowly." He laughed and sat back down.

Loki looked around. He was unsure how they would escape this problem. If she was unwilling to flee or make a move then it was up to him and the others in the room to do it for her. However, Loki was at a loss. Without his magic he was no better then a mortal. And with everyone he knew in the room drained of their energies how would they escape or even attempt it. He cursed himself. Usually he was good at these sorts of situations but with the life of Cephera hanging in the balance it seemed his mind was clouded by fear. Fear was something he rarely felt but he feared losing her. He didn't fear his own death but not being able to hold her ever again or hear her voice scared him.

He wished she would look at him. She was side on to him but had not turned her head his way. She knelt there her head held high and almost proud despite her lack of clothing and dim situation. He watched her closely as she eyed Demos over and over. He could almost see her mind calculating something but he wasn't sure what. Her eyes then darted to Thor and then back to Demos. Demos sat there with a smug look on his face. Her eyes darted to the side looking down at the floor and Loki heard a rumble. She looked to Loki then and he wasn't sure what she was trying to tell him but Loki saw the vaults guardian step into the room. The magic robot that was the very image of the kind Loki had sent to kill Thor on Midgard.

"I warned you..." Demos growled looking at the guardian. It hadn't made a move.

Loki laughed. He could work with this. "Fool. You take things from our vault and you think we don't have things protecting it." He mocked. The guardian moved across the floor and though Loki knew Cephera was controlling it using Odin's power he was sure he could convince Demos it wasn't her. "Give back the items you stole and it will be lenient." Loki grinned at the man who he wished he could kill with his bare hand if given the opportunity.

"I don't think so. Your guard should have stayed in the vault!" Demos made a hand gesture and Loki watched the fighting unfold. Demos' minions seemed unsure how to attack the massive metal creature as it spit fire from its face and killed a handful of them at a time. He watched as it continued to burn down those who sought to stop it. He felt satisfied to see the man who had thought to place himself within Cephera get caught in the fray and flail as fire consumed him. Demos didn't blink as his numbers dwindled and Loki knew he had much more then this with him. The people in the room who followed him was but a small number. As the fighting continued more filed in for the slaughter.

Loki couldn't be sure what Cephera was trying to achieve but whatever it was she seemed pleased. The fighting lasted longer then Demos expected and he began to become annoyed. He finally made a gesture and Loki was shocked to see Jouten warriors enter the room but not before the guardian ripped the chains from the wall holding down the warriors three, Sif and his mother. The Joutens proceeded to take down the guardian. They gave Loki looks of pure disgust and hatred.

The freed prisoners in their current state of weakness only lay upon the floor unable to engage in battle. Demos simply dismissed the Joutens once more and looked to the others with distaste. He left them as they were.

Demos stalked down to Cephera and took a handful of her hair. He tugged back her head hard. "You pray I do not find out that was you or I will make good on the promises I have made." He tossed her forward and drew his knife out again. He cut her across her backside and lower back and set deeper the one on her arms.

Loki watched on seething each time he touched her in any manner. He then turned his sights back on the free warriors and growled. Loki could see the look of fear cross her face but was replaced by determination. Demos had his back to her clearly unafraid of her. It was then Loki saw her disappear. The chains that once held her rattled to the floor. Demos turned in anger to look at the empty circle. "I warned you!" He bellowed as if that would bring her back. But there was no need to bring her back. Loki could clearly see her now with the warrior three her hands on both Volstagg and Hogun. She was healing them. Returning to them their energy.

Their sleepy faces became alert once more before Demos even ventured a look their way. Both quick to jump into action while Cephera did the same for Sif and Fandrel. Demos roared and in came more guards and more Joutens. Sif and Fandrel joined the fray. Before Demos could catch hold of Cephera she vanished with queen Frigga.

(Cephera)

Cephera's heart was pounding. If she failed in this she would lose her life but not before she watched Loki lose his and the rest tortured at her expense. She healed everyone who had been freed and took the queen to the safety of Loki's hidden room. She said nothing to the queen and vanished from her sights to go back to the room she just left. She needed to get her hands on Thor and Odin and if possible she would also grab hold of Demos and drain him dry. She wasn't strong enough to free the captured from their magical chains and she couldn't teleport them out of them. She was unsure how she would get around that with Thor.

When she reappeared Demos was as she left him, searching for her and the rest fighting off the onslaught of minions. Her initial thoughts before she began all this had been right. Demos would not risk draining anyone. He would have to touch flesh on flesh which exposed himself to her. Instead she watched Demos make his way through the people toward Loki. She made her move quickly. She reached Thor and took hold of him. She watched his dim blue eyes turn bright and once he had all the strength he needed he summoned his hammer to him and threw it at Demos. His chains didn't allow him to use his thunder or other spells but the weapon was bound to his will and still usable.

Demos flew to the floor as the hammer collided with him. He cried out in rage. He turned and set his sights back toward Thor and Cephera, who knelt behind the god of thunder. "Little whore." He said after returning to his feet. "Get the girl!" He yelled and many eyes turned to her. Thor's hammer came back to him and he used the little room he had to knock back those who came close enough. She moved behind him forcing those coming their way to encounter Thor. She couldn't keep running.

"If I can touch his flesh I can end this." She told Thor in a hushed whisper. He nodded. Cephera continued to stay with him until she could safely read Odin. Only Odin could free Loki's magic. Loki wasn't bound by magic chains as he had no magic to worry about to begin with. It made using magic items on him more effect for torture. Cephera had touched Odin but his power was great and the depth it ran was hard to grasp and she didn't wish to try and do things she was unfamiliar with. Odin was also still chained. "Can your hammer break these chains?" She asked. Thor looked at her and she could tell he wasn't sure. She held them down to the floor and Thor hefted his hammer and brought it down hard.

Sparks flew and he hit it again. She felt the loosening in the links and saw them give way. The chain broke but he was held by another. As the chains split in two the magic within them dissipated. Cephera checked for Demos and saw him fighting both Fandrel and Hogun. Thor knocked back and killed a few more warriors before he began the other chain. Cephera looked to Loki who was not looking at anything but her. The sound of the chain breaking took her gaze off her beloved and back to Thor.

Thor stood hastily and they both made their way to Odin. He was on the steps still against the throne. His eyes still as hazy as ever. Now would be a bad time for him to fall into the Odin sleep and she hoped it didn't come to that. While she healed Odin, Thor battled a moment to be free to work on the chains. When both things had been accomplished Odin stood tall and his staff appeared in his hand. He thumped it on the floor and in moments there appeared several of the same guardians Cephera had managed to summon. Now adding to the battle she could almost see Demos make his decision to flee but not before he broke free of his current battles toward Loki. He meant to kill him before he left.

Cephera felt her feet carry her before she could stop herself. Once more her body doing as it pleased without thought or reason. She ducked passed many who tried to stop her but she was to far away from him. Loki was half standing the best he could in his chains almost daring Demos closer. "Loki!" She cried out but he didn't look at her. Instead when Demos was upon him he vanished and it took a moment for Cephera to realize that Odin had granted him his magic back. Loki appeared behind Demos just as quickly as he disappeared and his hand went right through his armour and into the mans back.

Demos cried out in horror and pain right before Loki pulled his heart from his body and he fell as silent as the grave. Demos' body fell forward with a thud and the fighting suddenly stopped as if everyone was frozen. When everyone took in what just happened a lot of them began to flee. The destroyers burned down the ones remaining and Cephera ignored all that was happening and ran to her prince.

He caught her up in his arms. She clung to him like her life depended on it and nether of them took notice or shame that they both stood naked still. All that matter was that they were all alive. Another battle was won and she was free.

A/N I realized belatedly she could have teleported Demos to the secret room and locked him in there...but then again what fun would that have been without a small battle. :p