A/N: Unfortunately, these last couple of chapters weren't fully beta read, so I hope it's not too full of mistakes. However, if you do find any errors, please be sure to tell me about them (along with where they are in the story, of course). This goes for all the previous chapters, too. That being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Half of it pretty much wrote itself... : /

Chapter 21

Broken Dreams of a Dying Dragon

Once the agents were off the property, Mom, Ben and Lexie walked into the room in near synchrony. Mom had gently ushered me to the couch, where is she now sitting with an arm wrapped comfortingly around my shoulders while Ben sits in my vacated arm chair next to the sofa. All four of us stare blankly while the female presenter on the TV announces the winner for some generic game show.

"What was he like?" Lexie suddenly breaks the silence to ask. Mom shoots him a sharp look to shut him up.

"It's alright, Mom," I reassure her. I know they don't really understand, but I guess that's why it's really important that I answer Lexie's question, and answer it right.

"No, it's not alright!" Mom argues. "That man kidnapped you and did who knows what horrific things to you," she says seriously, further proving my thoughts.

"He actually wasn't all that bad," I say calmly. "I mean, he had me doing the cooking and the cleaning, and he was a bit of an arse. Other than that, he really wasn't that bad at all," I say defensively. Mom leans back to look directly into my eyes.

"Sweetheart," she says gently with a suspicious amount of pity in her eyes. "You must be feeling very stressed after your ordeal. That kind woman from the agency had offered you regular meetings with a psychiatrist, if you would like it," I stare at Mom in a sort of stunned disbelief.

"Rachael," Ben softly calls for Mom's attention. "You know how she feels about you controlling her life."

"I'm not controlling her life, Ben," Mom denies with a scoff. I raise my eyebrows at Mom, but ultimately keep silent. As annoying as it may be, I understand what she's doing.

I only wish I could tell them all what really happened in the cabin. About who Loki really is.

"Rachael," Ben says, now sounding exhausted. "You're trying to pressure her to see a psychiatrist, when she might not even need one."

Of course, they might not mind the fact that I love Loki.

"Of course she needs to see a psychiatrist, Ben! She was kidnapped by a monster!"

Well, it might take some adjustment, but they'll understand. They might even approve of it.

"I know, Rachael, but I'm just saying that she might not even have to fork out hundreds of pounds just for some trained professional to say that she's alright!"

All I have to say is that I'm fine, Loki's fine and we can all go our merry way.

"She wouldn't have to fork out hundreds of pounds. The woman- Agent Mitch-something-or-other- said that they'd pay for it all, and even if they didn't, we would help towards the costs."

The agents didn't seem to mind the idea of me and Loki...

"How could either of us help towards the costs? No offence, but I'm living off of peanuts, and you're living on benefits at the moment!"

They seemed a little disturbed, sure. But they also didn't seem to hate me for it.

"I could make it work."

Maybe I could tell them...

"How? It's not like Shana's the only child you've got to think about."

Would they hate me for it?

"Erm, I'm not a child any more, Ben," Lexie cautiously cuts in from where he sits on the other couch. "And neither is Shana."

If the agents were alright with it, then why would Mom and Ben hate me for it?

"Alex, you're still my responsibility while you're under this roof," Mom argues back a little too sharply.

Mom and Ben are normally very laid back people. After some time, they'll be fine with it.

"Precisely! Which is why neither of us could pay for something that Shana obviously doesn't even seem to need!"

Maybe I'll tell them... later.

"She doesn't need it?! Ben, she's been silently staring into space for the last five minutes!" Mom shouts. That snaps me out of my thoughts.

"W-what?" I ask blankly.

"See what I mean? She obviously needs help to get over whatever that monster did to her!" Mom says, still shouting as she pulls me tightly to her side.

Oh fuck. I really need to fix this.

"Mom, I'm fine!" I say, pushing myself away from her.

"Sorry, sweetheart, but that's total bullshit," Mom says as she lets go of me to cross her arms defiantly.

"No, really. He was actually pretty good," I insist loudly so they can't interrupt me. I need to tell them this before they get it in their minds that Loki's poison, and that I'm nothing but the helpless victim.

"He told me all sorts of stuff about Asgardian culture and all the other Realms. He showed me magic; taught me how to cook (sort of) and bought me books when I started to get bored." Lexie is leaning forward now, his homework forgotten as he listens on in fascination. Mom continues to look at me with concern, while Ben listens to me with a conflicted expression written on his face.

"The worse type of punishment he gave me was polishing apples, for fuck's sake!" I exclaim.

"Language," Ben says just as absently as when Lexie swore earlier. He's seemed really distracted all day, come to think of it...

"Wait, Ben," Mom cuts in in case of further reprimand. "What do you mean by him punishing you?" I can tell that she's deeply disturbed by the prospect.

"Don't worry, Mom," I say reassuringly. "I practically asked for it, what with all the arguments I started and the amount of times I refused to do what he told me to do."

"What sort of things did he ask you to do?" Mom quickly cuts in to anxiously say.

"Just some chore stuff. Clean the place and make the meals." I shrug, as they are pretty much stuff I would have done back at my little rented room, anyway. Besides, I'm fairly certain I already told them this.

"So he made you his slave?" Mom asks in horror.

"You know, that's exactly what I called it, too," I say, pretending to be shocked. "Of course, he just stubbornly claimed that I was his servant not his slave," I roll my eyes. And the difference is what, exactly?

"So he kidnapped you and forced you into becoming his slave," Mom says slowly in disgust.

Shit, I know where this is heading.

"Look, he really wasn't that-"

"Bad, we know," Mom snaps, looking progressively mad. The doorbell rings.

"That's the pizza," Lexie mumbles as he slides off the couch to head towards the door.

Since when did he order pizza? However, before I can ask, Mom continues talking.

"Did he brainwash you? I've heard that brainwashing can be triggered with certain words or phrasing."

"No, I wasn't brainwashed, Mom," or at least I fucking well hope not!

"Are you sure? I also heard that he was able to magically brainwash a load of people over in America to do all sorts of horrible things. He might have done it to you," Mom says anxiously as she looks me over like she'd be able to see the signs of brainwashing on me.

"Mom-" I need to stop this, before I start to doubt the last couple of months more than I already do.

"I'll, er... Help with the pizza," Ben mutters as he stands up from the armchair and rushes into the kitchen.

Those cowardly, traitorous bastards. The pizza's pre-cut and only requires one person to serve. Is there even any pizza in the kitchen? Was this all an excuse to leg it before the stress levels got too high? And what's taking them so long just to get the pizza off the pizza guy?

"I'm sorry," Mom says softly as she turns on the couch to better face me, but her eyes stay fixed on her locked hands. "I've just been so worried about you. All the things that just went rushing through my mind- especially when those agents told us what they'd suspected." Mom stops talking as her eyes fill with tears. She raises her hand to cover her trembling bottom lip, tilting her head downwards, she hides her face beneath her long blond hair as she begins to sob.

"Mom," I say so softly that it's almost a whisper. "It's alright. I promise that I've not been brainwashed, I'm not going through PTSD, I'm not going to go on some kind of psycho rampage-"

"Psycho rampage?" my Mom croaks as she quickly lifts her head to stare at me in horror. "I never said anything about you going on a psycho rampage!" I stare quietly at her until she's silent.

"Are you done?" I ask her. She slowly nods her head before ducking it down again. "As I was saying, everything is fine. I'm here, I'm safe and completely untraumatised." Well, that might not be completely true, but I suppose there are far worse abductions than what I went through...

"Is it safe to come back in, now?" Lexie calls from in the kitchen. I chuckle softly as Mom nods her head and lifts it to show her small and relieved smile.

"Yes, the interrogation's over," she calls to the guys in the kitchen. "For now, anyway," she adds just as I begin to relax back into the couch. I pretend to glare at her as Ben and Lexie each place a box of pizza on the coffee table in front of us.

Now that we have a suitable distraction from all the questions, I immediately dive for my favourite pizza- the ham and pineapple pizza.

"Yeah, fuck off mates 'cause it's mine!" I growl victoriously as I open the box to take out my first slice of victory pizza.

"Shana," Ben sighs in resignation. He usually doesn't even bother to actively tell me off any more.

"Sorry," I say around a mouth full of pizza, watching as one of the contestants on the TV show answers one of the opening easy questions wrong.

"Even a hamster would know that," I say in disgust as the contestant awkwardly fumbles through the rest of the questions.

"Not everyone knows the same things you do, Shana," Ben lectures me as he takes a large bite out of his spiced beef pizza.

"Yeah, but everyone knows that beef burgers are made from cows. I mean, come on- it's in the fucking name," I say with an exaggerated wave towards the screen.

"Language. Again." Ben says with a huff as he takes another bite from the slice.

"Shana," Lexie calls for my attention from the other couch. "Back to the thing with Loki-"

"Alex," Mom says scornfully as she glares in warning at Lexie. He waves his hand at Mom to shush her for a moment.

"Yeah, Mom. Don't worry, I wasn't going to- I mean, I was just going to ask you something, Shana." He looks me straight in the eyes and asks me with false seriousness and a small smile showing his amusement, "Loki kidnapped you, right?"

Mom's glare hardens as I cautiously nod my head.

"So... Does that mean that you were technically abducted by an alien?" Ben snorts slightly from his repressed laughter as Lexie's smirk becomes a full grin. Mom's glare doesn't waver, until I laugh loudly.

"Yeah, I suppose I was," I say through my laughter.

"You're not going to, like, have any alien babies or anything, are you?" Lexie asks, which prompts Mom to turn her hard stare into a wide eyed look of horror. However, I laugh at the question.

"Nah, don't worry about it," I say with a soft chuckle as Mom slowly relaxes again next to me. "I shouldn't be alien pregnant," then again, did we use protection?

I better not be alien pregnant...

-BREAK-

I sit on a cliff overlooking a wide stretch of snowy landscape. The sky is dark and murky with clouds overhead. Behind me, I hear the sound of great wings as the dragon lands on the ground.

"Been a while," I comment as the creature walks over to me.

"I had things to do," the dragon says, seeming to shrug his wings. We stand for a while and just stare in silence at the ever changing scenery in front of us.

"Where are we?" I finally ask him in a hushed tone. It's the same place we've been to for all the dreams we met in, but I still don't know where it is. Is it the Arctic? The North Pole?

Is it even on Earth?

The dragon shifts his large head to look down towards me. He seems to smile sadly as he says in his gentle and calming voice, "Don't worry, Shana. All you need to know is that you are safe and home."

Really? It doesn't look like home...

I tell the dragon this, and he chuckles before saying wisely, "Home is many things. The embrace of a lover, the territory of your mother, or wherever your children live. This is just one of your homes."

I look out at the mountains in the distance. All I can see of them are dark giant ridges outlining the horizon.

"Seems like a pretty shit home, no offence," I grumble as I hug my arms to my body against a strong gust of cold air. The dragon sniggers.

"No worries; I always thought so, too," the dragon says reassuringly. Suddenly, he squints his large green eyes into the distance, and I see it. A bright, multicoloured pillar of light flashes near the mountains. It remains flickering there for what must be about a minute, before vanishing into nothing.

"What-" I don't get time to finish my sentence before I'm quickly spun round by a large scaly paw and forced to stare into the eyes of the black dragon, who's now bowing his head to look directly at me. He stares at me with slightly squinted eyes as he seems to internally work out an especially difficult puzzle.

"This will be our last meeting," he says in a whisper. "Our dreams are starting to merge too much. I'm guessing that it'll happen soon, now."

"But what will?" I ask in frustration. "What do you mean? What's going to happen? What's with the light? Why are our-?"

"Just trust me," he growls, his eyes anxiously flicking towards the horizon. The wind carries to my ears what sounds like a lot of people running and screaming; I turn my head to look towards the noise.

"Don't," the dragon pleads. I turn my eyes back to his (they look so sad). "I need to say this- I've burned off so much energy to get here. I should have said it before, but..." He trails off, and the sounds seem to grow louder.

"I only have enough time to say this, and you must remember it for my sake," he takes a nervous breath as the noise threatens to overwhelm us.

"In sixteen years, don't let them out of your sight."

"What?" I ask him. What does he mean? What's going to happen? Don't let who out of my sight?

But it's too late. With a great rush, my vision is filled with an ocean of colours as hundreds of warriors shoot past me. Between the gaps of the many soldiers, I see the dragon's head slowly get cut to shreds by the swords of the multitude of Frost Giants, Elves, Dwarfs, Asgardians, and all the rest of them as they fly past us.

I scream.