Okay, this chapter flew out onto the paper (or rather, the screen of my laptop) as fast as lightning until screeching to a stop at the second line break. I have no idea why. Either way, here is the next chapter. Second, let me apologize upfront for what you're about to read. I really don't mean to write so much grief. Honest to God, I'm a relatively happy person outside of my writing. I also honestly tried to listen to some new songs for the chapter, but I ended up falling back on my fail-safe Freyja/Loki angst song "Running Up That Hill" (covered by either "Placebo" or "Track & Field," just depending on which level of sorrow I want to hit). The lyrics simply fit all too well for them, as does this one:

Song of the Chapter: Fire and Ice ~ Within Temptation

Enjoy!

Chapter 15

Falling Redemption

"I wish I could tell you how lonely I am. How cold and harsh it is here. Everywhere there is conflict and unkindness. I think God has forsaken this place."

―Elizabeth Gaskell

Loki found that it was more difficult to locate Kenna than he had previously believed. After running through the castle and even making a quick check in the city, he had finally been directed to the correct area. She was sitting in a deserted corner of his mother's gardens with her knees drawn up and her face in her hands. For an instant, he stopped in surprise at how much she resembled Freyja simply in her position. He approached her slowly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I know why you are here, Loki," she said shakily, not looking up at him.

"Then I don't need to speak," he replied, sitting down beside her.

"His injuries are my fault."

"Unless you've been the one secretly murdering people, which I highly doubt, then it has little to do with you."

Kenna looked up, golden-ringed crimson eyes brimming with tears, "There's a murderer roaming the streets and I allowed my only brother to wander alone, despite his health. He's the only family I have and I almost lost him."

"He's not the only family you have," Loki pointed out.

"Freyja? You cannot truly mean that. She loathes me with every fibre. And yet I have done nothing to harm her. Everything I have done, I have done for Freyr."

Loki sighed, running his fingers through his hair, "I'm certain Freyja has nothing against you personally."

"Then tell me why she refuses to speak to me without scorn."

"It's complicated," he muttered. "It always has been with Freyja and her family."

"But why?" Kenna demanded. "What right does she have to judge me so quickly? Is it the Asgardians' prejudice of Jotuns?"

"Freyja does not even see the Jotuns as any different from Asgardians or even her own people," he said with a smile. "The problems within her family stem from Njord."

"Our father?"

"There is far too much to say on the matter of Njord. But, in answer to how Njord relates to Freyja's anxiety around you, she also worries of prophecy that revolves around her."

"What prophecy and why does this relate to me?"

"There's a prophecy that a darkness shall threaten the safety of the Nine Realms. It is said that the daughter of the sea will fall to save them and a warrior will rise in her stead. It has always been that Freyja is the one to sacrifice herself when the time comes, but your arrival complicated matters.

"See, the prophecy also states the warrior will be a halfling. This is why Freyja cannot seem to address you without loathing. It is not that she isn't fond of you, it is that she is afraid of what your arrival means for her. She has lived for many centuries under the belief that she will die, but only now that she sees her replacement does it truly affect her."

Kenna remained silent when he finished, eyes wandering down to the grass beneath them.

"I never imagined she would – that I should represent such – how does she cope with such a fate looming over her?"

He shrugged, "She simply doesn't dwell on it. She attempts to find what will bring her happiness in life and protects it as best she can."

"And what of you and Freyr? You know what occurred to him but I have heard tell of what befell you. Where was she when you needed her most?"

"Freyja told me you know of her departure. Certainly you know she has been forcing Thanos to chase after her for nearly a millennium. And she was under the impression that Freyr had died along with the rest of her people."

"And still look at what became of you and Freyr," Kenna pointed out. "But I am no different. I attempt to save those I love and I only bring them harm."

Loki, uncertain of what else to do, placed his hand on hers in hopes of providing some form of comfort.

"Sometimes protecting those closest to us is simply beyond us. No one can be blamed when things go amiss."

Kenna looked up at him once more, "How do so few see you for what you truly are?"

Loki blinked in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"So many Asgardians look at you and only see a Jotun who betrayed them. It surprises me just how far from the truth that is. You were given the throne when the Allfather fell into the Odinsleep and many of your actions can be justified. And even after you fell, Thanos held power over you. Yet almost everyone within this Realm sees you as the villain, the eternal scapegoat for every wrong.

"You always treat me kindly, which is more than can be said for anyone else besides my brother. After everything that has occurred to any of us, you remain the kindest. I have seen what you do for Freyja, and she is lucky to have you."

She covered his hand with hers, giving it a grateful squeeze, "Thank you, for every kindness you have shown me."

He smiled in reply, making a mental reminder to ask Freyja to attempt to make peace with the Jotun. As if the very thought of her was enough, he looked up to see Freyja watching them with a look anger and sorrow on her face. She stalked towards them, everything in her stance screaming out her tension.

"Do you know just how worried I have been?" she demanded. "I have spent the past hour and a half scouring the city for you, praying to the Wise One that you were well, and now I find you sitting in the gardens with no one in sight?"

"I am here, for your knowledge," Kenna snapped.

"And you," Freyja said as she turned to the Jotun woman. "Freyr lies injured in the Healing Rooms because of your ignorance. He could have been killed!"

"Do you think I am unaware of this?" she demanded, leaping to her feet. "And if I am to blame, you are, as well. Where were you when he was attacked? Wasting time with your friends, were you not?"

"Do not dare turn this onto me!"

"Then do not pretend to be a saint when you are nothing more than a hypocrite!"

Loki, becoming increasingly aware that the gardens were quickly becoming a warzone, stood quickly and attempted to put himself between the two women.

"Love, no one is to blame for what happened to Freyr," he reasoned.

"I looked over Ottar's corpse and do you know what I found? The offense he was marked with was lust, leaving the last to be murder. Tell me, Loki, just which person close to me can be blamed for murder?"

His eyes widened as he realized what she was insinuating.

"I was worried out of my mind that you may have found yourself faced with death and now I find you sitting idly with- with her!"

"Oh, yes. Paint me as the villain as you always have," Kenna snarled. "You have never allowed me the slightest chance to show you who I am and you never will. Call yourself the goddess of love, but you are prejudiced against those who pose the slightest threat to you. Prophecy or not, you have no reason to treat me any differently than the rest."

"Who told you of that?" Freyja demanded, silver blade of energy forming in her hand. "Who told you of the prophecy?"

"What does it matter? It is the truth. You pretend to care so much for all, yet you only choose a select few to hold a place in your heart. But even in the face of your death, you would abandon them. I have seen such in your action. Reason leaves you when fear creeps in. You are no more than a coward who would betray all for the illusion of safety!"

Freyja lunged at the woman with a cry of rage, forcing Loki to leap out of the way. Having learned magic herself, Kenna's velvet red aura flared to life in the form of a shield. The two grappled with each other, ice striking auric energy enough for to throw sparks and shards of ice. The energy became flames in Freyja's hand as she leapt away from one of the Jotun's strikes.

"Freyja! Kenna! Stop this!" Loki yelled, throwing up a field of energy between them.

Kenna stumbled backwards as she collided with it, watching her opponent glare at her. Freyja stood at the ready on the opposite side of the wall, poised to strike at the second it dissipated.

"What is the matter with you?" Loki snapped as he turned towards her.

"Me?" Freyja demanded. "What have I done to her? She has antagonized me to no ends and expects that I remain docile."

"As if you have not antagonized me," Kenna muttered darkly.

"You stay out of this!" Freyja snarled, her attention snapping back to her half-sister. "You have no right to be within Asgard, much less to interrupt conversations that are not meant for you. You have no reason to be here. Why don't you simply return to your home?"

"You're one to speak of homes. Vanaheim was destroyed while you played guest in Asgard. You have no home!"

Had Loki not grabbed hold of her arm, he was certain Freyja would have easily broken through his shield and attacked Kenna once more. He had never seen such rage in her eyes. But, then again, no one had ever spoken to her in such a manner. No one had ever brought up Vanaheim's destruction in such a way.

"Freyja! I have never seen you act in such a way. You have always treated everyone with kindness and yet you cannot even keep a civil conversation with Kenna. What is the matter with you?"

"There is nothing wrong with me!" she yelled in reply as she took two steps back.

"And yet look at how you are behaving towards your own sister."

"She is not my sister."

"Freyja-"

"How can you choose to side with her when you know what she will be? How can you expect me to behave in any other way towards her? How can you betray me in such a way?"

"I have betrayed no one!" he yelled. "I side with her because you are acting as hostile as the halfling you are!"

The second the words left his lips, Loki realized what he had just said. The entire atmosphere seemed to grow cold as Freyja's blue eyes widened. There was no anger left in them, just sorrow and bitterness. The energy blade in her hand dissipated into smoke as she stared at him in wounded surprise.

"Freyja, I didn't-"

"But you did," she whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek.

He reached for her, arm outstretched towards her hand in the desperate hope that he could take back what had been said. But his hand passed through hers as she suddenly became translucent and disappeared completely. Loki stood, watching the empty air before him. He knew that he would not find her now. If she didn't want to be found, she could be halfway across the Realms. And he had no way to follow when she needed him to most.

He closed his eyes with a sigh, deciding his gravest mistake was not attempting genocide against the Jotuns or bringing an army to Midgard. It was hurting those closest to him. First it was Thor and his mother. Now it was Freyja. And he felt the pain of it himself, as if he had driven a knife into his own heart. He could only imagine what Freyja felt, wherever she had retreated to.

The minute Tony Stark entered the penthouse of his tower, he knew something was off. Pepper had gone to visit her mother, someone who Tony avoided like the plague, so no one should be within the rooms. And yet, he could practically feel someone's presence within the walls. Turning on the lights, he mentally ticked off which Avengers couldn't possibly be within a mile radius of the tower.

Steve was off in some small town in Montana, no doubt checking out the strange energy readings S.H.I.E.L.D. had been picking up. Natasha and Clint were in Somalia, if he recalled correctly. Bruce was back in Calcutta for the time being. And the Asgardian fraction of their little team was stuck in Asgard until the Bifrost was repaired or Freyja decided to use the Tesseract.

Deciding that no one else could be within the tower, he pulled out his new Blu-Ray copy of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Technically, he was supposed to wait for Pepper to return so they could watch it together, but he didn't see the harm in viewing it once without her knowing. So when he walked into his personal theater room to find the screen lit up with the Chitauri battle in New York and a certain goddess splayed across the couch, wearing an almost Renaissance-like tunic and leather trousers, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"I thought I might watch 'The Avengers' while you were out," Freyja announced, words slurring oddly together. "I hope you don't mind."

"Nope, I love when random gods pop up on my couch," he replied sarcastically, noticing the empty bottles littered around the floor.

Freyja pointed towards the screen, crystal goblet in hand, as the movie versions of Thor and Loki appeared.

"Did this actually occur? Or was it added to increase the dramatics?"

Tony walked around the edges of the bottles to find a free chair, "No, that was real. We could hear the whole thing through our earpieces, something they forgot to add into the film."

She sighed sadly, "This is what occurred between two of the most important people in my life when I had left. I had attempted to protect them and they simply turn on each other in my absence. No matter what I do, I can never fully protect my family."

"Are these my Diva Vodka bottles?" Tony asked, picking up one. "You know these babies cost four hundred and fifty thousand dollars a pop. How many did you drink?"

"How many did you have?"

"Eleven," he answered hesitantly, beginning to wonder if he truly wanted to know.

"I believe there may be five left…Possibly six."

"Give me that!" Tony snapped, snatching the goblet from her hand. "You just drank over two million dollars' worth of vodka!"

"It wasn't very good," she protested.

"Then why did you drink it?"

"And see! He stabbed the brother he had always protected! What is becoming of my family?" she exclaimed, gesturing towards the screen again.

"I thought you told me they're getting better?"

"That was before the murders," she muttered.

"Murders? So Jane wasn't the only one?"

"Oh, everything is a mess, Tony. Some puppet of Thanos is killing those closest to me and when I attempt to warn Loki, he chastises me for my attitude towards Kenna!"

"Who?"

"My half-sister," Freyja said, words sharp. "The daughter of my father and Skadi of Jotunheim."

"You have a half-sister? Your family just has a shit-ton of problems, doesn't it?"

"Many of them caused by myself, such as my newest trouble," she conceded. "Is it possible to ruin a marriage before it has even begun?"

Tony shrugged, taking a swig from the goblet, "Yeah, I guess if – wait, you're engaged?"

Freyja picked up her left hand and waved it before him in answer, allowing him to catch a glimpse of her new ring, "This is a mastery ring."

"Are you drunk?" he asked. "Of course you're drunk, you drank five bottles. How did you drink ten bottles of vodka? Tasha can only drink two!"

"Different genetic make-up," she muttered. "Bio-chemistry's completely different."

"You're getting sidetracked. What were you saying about getting married?"

"I think I'm going to die."

Tony choked on his mouthful of vodka, "What? Where did that come from?"

"I have always known that I will die, but now I fear my time is almost upon me."

"Aren't you immortal th-"

"Immortal, not invincible," she corrected. "I looked into the future not long ago and do you know what I saw?"

"Do I want to know?"

"I saw myself lying against the ground, sword through my heart. Loki was holding me in his arms with Thor and Freyr grieving at his side."

"Lovely," he commented, downing the last of the vodka with one gulp.

"But I doubt Loki mourns after what he said to me…"

Tony turned to see Freyja's face shimmering with the trails of tears running across her skin. He couldn't quite make sense of what she was saying, but he was beginning to piece it together.

"Rock of Ages said some nasty things?"

"None that were not true, unfortunately."

"Did he seem sorry afterwards?"

"I could see his realization clear in his eyes."

"Well, I highly doubt he meant it. You know, we're men. We don't usually come with filters between our heads and our mouths. Pepper can tell you that. Hell, Pepper can tell you all sorts of stories to prove that one."

"Perhaps I should leave him be, seeing as my death shall arrive soon."

"I don't think so," Tony snapped, pointing at the screen. "You see that Loki? That's the Loki that comes out when you aren't around. Blame on stress levels or an inferiority complex, but you fix that. Believe it or not, Loki's a lot more complacent when he's getting laid."

Freyja wrinkled her nose in distaste, "How comforting."

Tony sighed, "I don't know why you came here for advice. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not an expert on these things. And isn't Steve your personal therapist?"

"I'm not actually familiar with Steve's whereabouts, and I have troubled him too much already. Besides, you have a shocking array of liquor."

"So you just came for the booze," Tony said with a smirk. "Great to know you think so highly of me."

"Oh, don't twist my words. I already have far too many people upset with me. The other reason for my visit is, well, you never fail to lift even the lowest of spirits. And I am in need of your humor."

"Well, I don't know what to say, but I have The Hobbit," he suggested, shaking the DVD.

"I haven't the slightest idea what that is."

Tony grinned, "You'll like it. Trust me. But no more vodka. It won't make any sense if you get so drunk that you can't think clearly."

"Alright."

Loki sat on the edge of Freyja's bed, waiting for her to return. He had been sitting within her bedchamber for many hours in hopes that she would come back. The sun had long since set and he was beginning to worry that she wasn't going to return soon. After she had left, he had immediately turned on Kenna. But they both knew he didn't blame her. It was his own slip that was the final straw.

It was only when he felt her familiar presence that he looked up. She stood in the doorway, eyes rimmed with red and expression tired. He immediately leapt to his feet and took her hands in his.

"Freyja, I-"

She cut him off as her lips pressed against his. He barely had time to respond before she pulled away again.

"I know," she breathed. "But you were truthful."

She didn't give him a minute to reply before she was kissing him again. He tilted her face with a hand at her chin, deepening the kiss. Her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer as if she was afraid he would disappear. He allowed himself to fall back onto the bed, pulling her with him. He rolled over the second his back hit the mattress so she lay beneath him.

"I didn't believe you'd return so soon," he breathed, trailing kisses down her pulse and to her shoulder.

"Neither did I," she replied.

"Where were you?"

"Stark Tower," she answered. "I watched a few films."

"Anything of interest?" he murmured against her skin, not truly invested in the conversation but wanting to keep her thoughts away from their little spat.

"I watched the film on the Avengers and missed you too greatly. And then we watched The Hobbit and Star Wars. Anakin reminds me far too much of you."

He pulled away slowly, "Who?"

"I'll explain later," she mumbled.

He chuckled softly, "You and your love for Midgardian tales…"

"I thought you enjoyed The English Patient."

"What can I say? De Almásy had excellent taste I music, women and interests," he grinned, sucking gently at the base of her neck between her collarbones.

Freyja moaned softly, eyes fluttering closed, "You'll be the death of me."

"No," he growled, nipping at her skin. "You will not die, cause aside. I refuse to allow you to do so. I will barter my soul for your life, forsake all that I am, all to make sure you are by my side for the rest of eternity."

As he spoke, Loki trailed his fingers down her sides and under the hem of her tunic. He tugged the fabric up as his skin brushed against hers. The stark contrast between them never ceased to amaze him. They were the sun and moon, as he had once said, in nearly every way, nearly polar opposites, and yet they couldn't exist without each other.

"Forgive me for all I have said," he breathed, kissing the curve of her jaw. "For every sin I have committed, and every pain I have caused you."

"What more is there to forgive?"

"I could-"

He was cut off once more as Freyja pressed her finger to his lips, "Loki, I love you more than the Realms, but you speak too much at times such as these."

He grinned wolfishly, "Then I shall remain silent, but do not expect that I'll allow you to do the same."

Freyja smiled, blue eyes twinkling mischievously, "I accept your challenge."

Loki couldn't stop the laugh, truly forgetting about all that had occurred. At the moment, it was just him and Freyja. There was no murderer, no prophecy, not even a world beyond them. Just the feeling of fire on ice and the sound of two heartbeats in the dark.