Previously:

Loki's eyes scanned the snow down below. So far, nothing…

But then, a figure appeared and Loki came to a stop, making Takeru stop as well and the two gods looked down at the black haired goddess who seemed to be staring up at them. "That's… Yuki-onna!" Takeru exclaimed and he and Loki quickly flew down and landed in the snow about 10 yards away from her.

"Where is she! ?" Loki shouted at her.

The goddess just continued to stare at them for a moment before her gaze turned a little to the side behind the two gods. Takeru and Loki followed her gaze and turned around to see what she was looking at.

And there, about 15 yards away, something was sticking up from the snow.

The two gods' eyes widened. "Yui!" "Weed!" They exclaimed and hurried over to where she was lying.

When they got to her her body was half buried in the snow and they had to dig her out. "Stay with us Weed!" Takeru cried out.

"We're taking you home." Loki whispered.

Now:

"They are taking too long, where are they?" Sif asked. She had calmed down enough to stop crying.

"It's alright, Sif-Sif, Loki-Loki and Take-Take will find her." Apollon assured her.

"But still, they have been gone for awhile now." Hades pointed out.

"What if they're unable to find her?" Freyr asked.

"Don't say that, brother!" His sister exclaimed.

"We should follow them!" Balder suggested.

"You will do no such thing." Zeus said as he walked up to them. "The two of them will find her, there is no need for you all to go."

"But-!" Balder exclaimed.

"We can't just wait here and do nothing when Fairy is out there! She needs us!" Apollon shouted.

"Looking for her is the least we can do after we failed to protect her." Hades stated.

"Don't let Sisyphus's words get to you. There was nothing you could have done." Zeus told them.

"We could have stayed by her side!" Freyr exclaimed. "We shouldn't have left her alone…"

"Brother." Freyja whispered and put a hand on his shoulder.

"We let this happen…" Dionysus said with his head down.

"Kusanagi Yui is paying the price for our ignorance." Tsukito stated.

"We have waited long enough, let's go after them-" Balder started but was interrupted when gasping sounds coming from inside the crowd was heard.

The friends all looked in the direction of the crowd who was getting out of the way of two figures heading towards the castle.

It became deadly quiet and eyes widened in shock when they realised who it was Loki was carrying in his arms. It was an awful sight, Loki's face was dark as he looked down at Yui who wasn't moving at all. Her skin was pale and the ice over her eye had spread up to the top of her head and down towards her right ear and she was bleeding from several places.

Her friends all screamed her name and rushed towards Loki and Takeru.


Yui's friends were sitting outside a room, all with pained expressions on their faces. No one said a word. Yui was inside with the Norse goddess of healing, Eir, Odin and Zeus and they had been waiting for a long time for any news.

Then, the door opened and a goddess with red hair stepped out, making everyone rise to their feet, eager to find out if there was any hope for their precious human friend. "Well?" Hades asked.

"Come inside." Eir told them quietly.

They followed her inside and found Zeus and Odin standing beside a table where they had placed Yui on and gasped at the sight. Yui's dress had been removed and only two towels were covering her breasts and the lower and intimate part of her body. Now they were able to see exactly how the ice had moved over her body. First it was the ice that had spread over her head and down to her ear, then it was the one that had spread all the way down her left leg and down to her foot, her other leg had ice down to her knee and the line of ice on her right shoulder had moved all the way down her arm and stopped at her wrist. At least she wasn't bleeding anymore, Eir had managed to stop it.

"Yui-san…!" "Fairy!" Balder and Apollon cried out.

"How… How is she?" Hades asked.

"I-I can't see her breathing…!" Sif cried.

Eir walked up to Yui and looked down at her. "She isn't dead."

"But the curse-?" Takeru asked.

Eir moved some hair away from Yui's face. "It appears that Yuki-onna was able to stop the ice from spreading any further but Yui was already on the verge of death so it put her in a coma-like state. The goddess couldn't remove the curse, only stop it, if we can't find a way to cure her soon she might never wake up again."

"That can't be…!" Apollon cried out.

"Odin and I will get the answers out of Sisyphus, you all can stay here and keep Kusanagi company." Zeus informed as the two headed for the door.

"I'll be outside, call if anything happens." Eir said as she too left the room.

None of the gods knew what to do and just stood around Yui's unmoving body and watched her for several minutes.

"We're so sorry, Fairy." Apollon finally said and placed a hand over hers gently.

"This is our fault." Balder whispered.

"Kusanagi Yui, you are going to be alright." Tsukito said.

Takeru narrowed his eyes. "Damn it, Weed…"

"Everything's going to be alright." Thor stated.

"Just wait a little longer…" Hades said in a low voice.

"It's too early for you to leave us." Dionysus told her.

Loki stayed quiet the whole time.

Sif noticed the star-shaped rock the dwarf had made for her and the small bottle of dragon blood on another table. "Look, the things she used to ease her pain."

"Too bad they can't help her now…" Freyja cried softly and leaned against her brother for support.

Tyr turned to Vidar. "Vidar, let's go with Odin."

"Yeah." He answered and followed him towards the door. They didn't have the same kind of relationship with Yui as the others and thought it would be best to leave them alone with her. Right now it was more important to get Sisyphus to talk.


The sun was rising, Odin and Zeus had been trying to make him speak all night but he had refused. "You can threaten me all you want, I'm not talking." Sisyphus smirked up at them. The crowd of gods was smaller now but there were still many of them there.

"Stop looking at us with that annoying smile." Zeus ordered.

"You are going to kill me anyway, why should I help you cure the girl?"

Zeus's face darkened. "Don't think you can act like a fool around me and get away with it, Sisyphus."

For now, Yui's friends had left Yui to Eir and was currently watching their leaders interrogate Sisyphus. "Just how long is this going to take?" Takeru hissed.

"We should just kill him, he's not going to talk." Freyr stated.

"I didn't want to do this but you leave me no choice." Zeus told the human on the ground. "You will stay out here, no food and no water, until you talk." Then he turned to Vidar and Tyr. "You two will watch him, call for us when he's ready to talk."

"Yes, Zeus-sama!" They both answered.

And two days passed…

None of Yui's friends felt like doing their duties, not until Yui had woken up. They were too scared to leave her as well so either they were watching her or they were observing Sisyphus from a distance. "I want to burn him alive." Loki said through his teeth as he watched Sisyphus from the balcony to the room Yui was lying. Balder was there with him as well, he had just returned with tea when he stumbled over his own feet and landed flat on the floor just in front of the doorway to the balcony. The teacup flew past Loki and down towards the ground. It hit Hoenir, who was passing by, in the head and he looked around in confusion while rubbing his head. The sight made Loki grin. "Thanks for the distraction, Balder."

Balder pulled himself up from the floor. "Oh, um, hehe, you're welcome." He said and let out a small laugh.

But the sweet moment didn't last very long and soon their expressions changed again.

Balder's gaze turned to the little boy by the table Yui was lying on. He was using one of the table's legs for support as he was trying to look at her, not quite understanding why she was sleeping up there. He obviously wanted her to wake up so she could pick him up. "Why haven't we left him with his parents yet?"

For the past two days Loki had been the one to look after the child, since he was the only one beside Yui who he seemed comfortable with. "Odin insists Yui should be the one to return him. She risked her life trying to save him so it's only fair she gets to meet him again and say goodbye as well. That's what he said."

"But the child can't wait here forever. If we wait much longer to return him-"

"I know. One more day, if she hasn't woken up by then Odin told me to take him home."

"I see."

The kid rubbed his eyes, very sad and stressed so Loki pushed himself away from the balcony and walked up to him. "Up we go." He said as he picked him up. He was now able to see her clearly and started crying softly when he saw what the bad man had done to her. "Yeah, I know kid." Loki said and turned away from the table. "Balder, take him and get him something to eat. I need a moment."

Balder wasn't about to argue with that. "Alright, take your time."

Once Balder and the boy had left, Loki walked up to Yui. He stared down at her ice-covered face and touched the cheek the ice hadn't reached yet. "You idiot…"

He spent minutes just looking at her. "If you wake up, I'm never leaving your side again."


"You look awful." Tyr pointed out.

Sisyphus didn't look so well, he was tired, hungry and thirsty. When he was a demon he could survive for weeks without any nutrition but now that he was back in his original form it was getting harder to ignore his needs. "Get Zeus." He told Tyr who looked down at him in surprise. 'Is he going to tell him?' Tyr thought before he turned to Vidar. "Watch him, I'll go get Zeus-sama."


The huge crowd had gathered around Sisyphus again, including Yui's friends, who were standing a bit further away as usual. All wanting to know what he had to say. "So, are you finally going to tell us how to remove the curse?" Zeus asked.

Sisyphus, who was looking down at the ground at first, slowly raised his head and grinned. "As if. There's no way to remove it."

The crowd gasped.

"I placed the curse on her with the help of my staff, the only thing that could remove it, and it was destroyed when you defeated me. Sorry to say this but, that girl is doomed. I only told her to go look for a cure because I wanted to see her fight for her life but there really is no cure out there for her, only things that could ease her pain or slow down the process. She would die sooner or later anyway." Sisyphus explained. Then his eyes turned to Yui's friends "So, how does it feel to have destroyed the only thing that could save your friend? You wanted to save her, instead you have killed-" He didn't get to finish the sentence because in a blink of an eye Loki was right in front of him, holding a hand around his throat and squeezed it hard.

"I'll kill you, I'll fucking kill you!"

Meanwhile, Eir was in the room with Yui and the boy, trying to think of a way to remove the curse when she noticed the little boy trying to climb up the table. "That's dangerous, my little friend." She told him and picked him up, then she sat him down on the table beside Yui's body. 'No harm in allowing him to be near her if that's what he wants. As long as he's careful.' She thought and picked up the blue amulet she had brought in with her. She studied it for a minute before she put it down beside Yui. 'If only I could use the amulet in some way to heal her. But I have no idea how…'

She moved to the side to see if she could find something useful among her books and medicine, not realising that the boy, who was sitting beside Yui, had picked up the amulet she had left on the table.

The boy looked at it for a moment before his head turned to Yui and found the snowflake-shaped patch of ice over her heart. Being just a small child he acted on impulse and thought it was a good idea to see if the beautiful blue thing in his hand would be a good decoration for the snowflake. And also, being so young meant he wasn't very good at being careful either…

Eir looked up just in time to see him slam the amulet against the ice on Yui's chest. "No!" She exclaimed.

Too late. The amulet cracked the snowflake and the goddess froze and didn't dare to breathe, afraid the kid had accidentally caused great harm to Yui's already dying body. But what happened in that moment surprised Eir. Blue light emerged from the cracked snowflake and soon it surrounded her whole body. "What in the world-?" Eir exclaimed in shock.


Hades and Thor had to help tear Loki away from Sisyphus before he killed him. "Don't let him get to you, Loki." Hades told him as they dragged him away back to the others.

"Damn him…!" Loki hissed.

"Is that it?" Sif asked as tears ran down her face. "Is there no hope for Yui?"

"We'll find a way, there has to be another way!" Apollon cried out.

"She might die before we can figure something out… my poor little flower." Freyja sobbed and buried her face in her hands.

"She can't die, she just can't!" Takeru shouted out in frustration.

"So, what do we do now?" Tsukito asked.

Odin walked up to Sisyphus and stood beside Zeus. "Be grateful he didn't kill you. Choose your words carefully, you are not a demon anymore, we can kill you in a heartbeat."

"Haha, you'll kill me soon anyway." Sisyphus answered.

"Why did you wait to tell us there was nothing we could do?" Zeus asked.

"To make you believe there actually was a way, Yui's death will be more satisfying now. It's really fun to watch people hope and wait for the good news only to drop the bomb, making them realise they have been hanging onto false hope."

It got quiet.

"Isn't it time to end her suffering?" Sisyphus laughed. "She's as good as dead anyway."

"Not quite!"

Loki's eyes widened and so did the rest.

"That voice…!" Apollon exclaimed in shock.

Everyone turned around slowly, not believing their ears, and saw a very familiar face by the entrance to the castle.

"Yui!" "Yui-san!" "Weed!" "Kusanagi-san!" "Kusanagi!" "Yui!" "Kusanagi!" "My little flower!" "Kusanagi!" "Fairy!" "Kusanagi Yui!" "Yui-san!" "Yui-san!" Loki, Balder, Takeru, Dionysus, Hades, Sif, Thor, Freyja, Freyr, Apollon, Tsukito, Vidar and Tyr exclaimed all at once.

Yui was smiling weakly at them from the entrance, Eir was standing beside her with the boy in her arms. She was dressed in a new white dress, similar to the one she usually wore and the ice had disappeared completely from her body. She had red scars on the places the ice had once been, including over her left eye that she still couldn't open yet but other than that she seemed to be heading in the right direction.

The gods were too shocked to move, even when Yui started walking towards them. She was limping as she walked, figuring it would take a while until her body was completely healed.

As she got closer they could see she had a pretty nasty scar over her heart as well.

"I-Impossible!" Sisyphus shouted. "How did you-? !"

The crowd moved out of the way as Yui made her way over to Sisyphus who was sitting on the ground.

"Kusanagi, welcome back." Odin said with a smile as he and Zeus moved to the side so she could pass them.

"Thank you." Yui smiled back at him before focusing on Sisyphus once again.

Once she was close enough she sat down on her knees in front of him. "I bet you didn't expect me to ever wake up again." She smiled sweetly at him.

"How on earth did you-? !" Was all Sisyphus was able to say before Eir came up from behind Yui with the kid still in her arms. "This little boy did what we didn't think of doing."

"And what was that, Eir?" Odin asked.

"He literally pierced the snowflake over her heart with the amulet. The snowflake cracked and a blue light emerged from it and surrounded her body. The ice was then sucked into the amulet and Yui opened her eyes just seconds after."

"Of course, the staff was made by the amulet, so it makes sense the amulet was the answer we were looking for." Zeus said.

"No freaking way…!" Sisyphus hissed through his teeth.

"Sisyphus." Yui said to get his attention. "I want to tell you something."

"Oh? And what is that?"

"What you put me through is unforgivable and it's something I never want to experience ever again. Every time the ice spread through my body it felt like I was going to die and at those moments I really did want to. But remembering how I would drag the boy down with me if I did kept me going and my soul would never be able to rest in peace if I left the people I love behind like that. I knew they would blame themselves. But do you know what I hated the most? Lying. I had to lie to everyone and pretend everything was fine. I hate lying and I can only hope they will forgive me for it… To be honest, I'm so angry with you right now, to think that a fellow human could turn out to be so evil he literally turned himself into a demon because he didn't get what he wanted. Childish. You are like a big child who destroys things until he gets his way." Yui took a deep breath before she continued. "There, I have said what I wanted to say. Now, there is one important thing my parents taught me a long time ago… and that's forgiveness."

Sisyphus blinked at her and the gods and goddesses looked down at her in surprise.

"I shouldn't forgive you but I do. Seeing how you have lost everything and is about to get punished for your actions I feel like it's the right thing to do." Yui said and stood up. "And besides, I'm not really the type of human to hold a grudge. And I also met some wonderful people thanks to you." She finished and turned to the boy Eir was holding and patted his head. "And I'm sure you are more interested in getting home to your parents."

The boy smiled widely at her as if he agreed.

"Well said Kusanagi." Odin praised her.

"For now, there are people over there waiting for you." Zeus informed her.

Indeed, all of her friends were standing further away from the crowd, looking very relieved. Some of them even had tears in their eyes.

Yui slowly began to move away from the big crowd and towards her waiting friends. She was tired and her body was sore but she had waited long enough to finally be able to let her friends back in. She was smiling the whole time as she made her way over to them.

When she was close enough she stopped.

"Everyone, I don't know what to say more than that I'm sorry for the pain I've caused you and how happy I am to have all of you by my side. I really did want to tell you everything and I'm sorry that I couldn't. I hope that you can forgive me… Being forced to leave you behind, that has to be the most terrifying feeling I've ever felt!" Tears were now running down from her good eye as she closed it. "Forgive me…! Forgive me!"

More she didn't get to say because just a second later, her friends had trapped her in the middle of a big group hug. "Welcome back to us, Fairy!" "Don't you dare leave us again, Weed!" "Stupid Kitten!"

Yui's eye widened, she was even able to open her left eye just a little before she closed them both again and let more tears of happiness fall. She leaned against the chest of the one in front of her, knowing exactly who it was. 'Loki-san…'

A/N: There you have it! Yui is alive and now you can start wondering how her and Loki's relationship is going to change ;) See you in about 4-5 days!