A/N:
Your reaction to this story was beyond humbling.
I am simply blown away.
This chapter goes out to every single one of you who took the time to read the first.
You are the reason for this quick update and my undying love.
~
Nothing hurts my world
just effects the ones around me
When sin's deep in my blood
you'll be the one to fall
~
She watched but struggled with believing.
Men torn to pieces before her eyes, beaten with blunt force, and some even disappearing altogether – their bodies snapping and contorting to fit through much too small portals in midair.
She wanted nothing more than to look away, but found she couldn't.
Another explosion shook the room violently.
It rang through her ears, much louder than the others - and much too close.
And then she saw him.
He was free.
Loki stood on the top stair of his cell, his eyes running slowly over every inch of the turmoil. The fires danced in them, washing his stark features in an orange glow. It did nothing to soften them.
He almost looked amused by the sight. Liberated.
And though he held the most human resemblance of the group, he was somehow the most frightening.
He stood at ease among enemies, only his jaw tightening, his calculating gaze tensing for a beat - then relaxing. Mid-motion, his eyes cleared as he turned to speak up to a flaming monster.
Jane hadn't even noticed it past him until then.
Dark smoke plumed from all around them, thickening the air. The lights of her cell casted a bright glare on the window against the blackness. She shifted herself closer, trying to make out what was happening.
The monster snarled, his top lip rising to reveal sharp, vicious yellowing teeth.
Jane froze, waiting for the worst.
But neither set of eyes turned to find her.
Loki held his left hand before him, palm out. A look of reasoning arched his brow, adding an aristocratic air to his features. His eye lids scrunched slightly with his final words. And he waited.
The beast studied him for a grueling moment – then grunted a nod.
Loki gestured for him to follow, the thickness of smoke and fire in the air causing them to fade more and more from her view with every step they took.
One pace.
Two.
On their third, she watched as the mammoth beast stumbled, his large mass twisting sideways violently in the air before crashing hard to the ground.
At the same time, Mjölnir ricocheted against the upper corner of her cell and Jane watched the thick glass ripple like a rock dropped into still waters. The force of the blow sent a huge crack splintering along the glass, nearly reaching the ground, smaller webs branching off in every direction. The barrier still stood strong.
She followed the direction the hammer had traveled back to and spotted Thor rushing through the entryway.
She watched as he twisted and molded into the battle so easily – naturally, only spotting glimpses of a red cape and glistening armor as the commotion and smoke swiftly swallowed him whole.
Lightening flashed bright every few seconds, cutting through the smoke like storm clouds, sending cracks of energy through the air. The small hairs on her arms and the back of her neck rose to attention.
The enemies began to retreat but Thor pursued them viciously.
Something was wrong. She saw it in the way he continued to smash into them well after their deaths, swinging his hammer so ferociously around at anything within reach. Lighting curled from the flat surface of its end, twisting and rising like blue flame, exploding with each connection to flesh.
As they tried to clear from around him he would throw it into the crowd and call it back, over and over again, taking down each row of enemies in its path.
The clanging sound as it bounced from metal, to bone, to cement and back again brought Jane's hands up to cover her ears.
She cringed every time it made contact.
And before long, the room was cleared.
He quickly made his way to her, large paces rapidly closing the space between them. He carelessly dropped his hammer upon the stone floor before clearing the two steps up to her cell in one long final stride. He stopped just short of the glass.
"Are you alright?" His deep voice was even thicker than usual with concern – and something else she couldn't quite decipher.
She placed her hands to the ground at her sides to help herself to her feet. The motion made her dizzy. She reached out to lean against the wall for support as she stepped toward him.
"Yes I'm fine," Jane assured him with a nod of her head, before urgency made itself known. "What's going on – who were they…?" she paused for a long moment when Thor's gaze fell, a deep sadness dimming the blue of his eyes in a way she'd never seen before. Her heart ached at the sight. "What happened?" she asked carefully of him.
His eyes slid closed.
"The attackers were of Elfish race – an enemy we did not believe to still exist...They were just legends – stories."
"Myths," Jane whispered without fully meaning too, watching him struggle over the words. "So were you, once," she tried to sooth.
His eyes found hers and hardened.
"And look at what our existence has done to your world, Jane. We believed them to no longer be a threat and because if it, we were unprepared. Everything has been left in ruin." he stopped himself, pressing the knuckles of his fist against the glass as he glance over to Loki's destroyed cell. He took a labored breath and lowered his voice. "They came in search of the Aether."
Her eyes widened as his words struck her like lightening, their true meaning thrumming through her chest.
They had come for her.
Thor broke the stretching silence.
"For now you are safer in here than anywhere else," he spoke reluctantly. "I have to prepare the armies for when they return and…"
"I can help. You can't leave me in here," Jane's protest cut him off as she remembered the emotionless expressions upon the masked attackers. A chill crept down her spine. "Not alone... Not again." Her eyes bore into his.
His brow furrowed and pulled down at her plead.
"My father is enveloped in rage right now, Jane," he muttered softly. "Our protective barrier has been destroyed. Our armies' numbers are fleeting… Setting you free would mean signing your death sentence – in one way or another." His eyes grew heavier.
Her own held his firmly.
"And leaving me here isn't?"
His mouth opened to answer her just as something huge came crashing down over his head from above. The armor over Thor's knees scratched along the glass as he fell to them. His eyes rolled upward, as his massive girth crashed sideways to the ground.
Jane pulled sharply back from the wall, her hand raising her mouth to stifle a startled yelp.
Loki stood just inches from the bottom step of her cell. His eyes rose from Thor's still form to focus so intently on her that she felt her heart freeze in her chest. Air left her lungs in a short gasp.
The huge chunk of column slid out of his path with a smooth wave of the back of his hand.
She took another step back.
He stalked forward with the grace of a predator, swiftly stopping to grab Thor's listless hand from its contorted position. He pressed it flat against the glass. The barrier disappeared in a bright flash, as if he'd simply turned off a giant television screen.
He stepped over Thor without sparing him a glance. Glared down at her and towered above her all at once.
His presence was stifling this time. Too potent. Real.
His lips half curved with cavalier spite.
"I'm afraid you fear the wrong fate."
Loki's fingers were wrapped firm around her upper arm, towing her behind him as she stumbled over the wreckage and piled ashes and other obstacles that she tried her best to not let her mind linger on for too long.
She had nearly fallen a few times due to his rushed pace, but his grip hadn't allowed it.
Her skin – the Aether simmered at the surface beneath his hold. The heat almost burned.
She coughed at the intruding smoke that filled her lungs, using her free hand to pull the collar of her shirt up over her mouth and nose. Her eyes stung and blurred.
They neared the far end of the corridor, taking a different way down than the guards had led her up.
Left instead of right.
The stairs opened up to another, larger corridor. They made their way to the end of it, her legs straining to keep up with him because at this rate, she was sure he'd actually drag her if she failed to do so.
He turned the corner before her, but quickly spun around to turn back.
Before she had the chance to follow, her shoulders were pressed hard against the wall. Her heart rate soared. The quick movement knocked the air from her chest. Loki's grip tightened fractionally, painfully around her forearm. His other hand clasped over her mouth, the pad of his thumb pressing down uncomfortably over her cheek bone, his long, cool fingers trapping her lips.
He stood inches from her, facing her – but not really. Her eyes leveled with his chest. The scent of leather tinged her nose with each shallow breath. She looked up to search his eyes for answers but found only shock as they fixed on something past her.
She stilled completely, her fingertips pressing back into the solid wall at her sides.
"Guards…"
A voice bellowed from the opposite end of the corridor. It was familiar, regal – but never so disheveled.
"Guards!"
Jane rolled her head toward the sound of half dozen Asgardian soldiers storming down the hall, spears and shields at the ready. The sound of clanking metal traveled through the stone and shook her bones.
Loki leaned forward a fraction in precaution as they advanced.
Her heart flittered. A warm cast of hope washed over her.
It burnt out with the gust of air as they passed without sparing either one of them a single glance, maneuvering just inches behind Loki's back as they made their way to where Odin's voice had come from.
His hands hummed lightly against her skin.
She looked back up at him.
A sheen of sweat coated his forehead. His mouth was a straight line, taught against the paleness of his skin – even paler than she remembered. His green eyes were glassy, lost. Bottomless.
She tried to turn her head to follow his gaze. His grip held like steel for a moment, then he allowed it, his hand over her mouth going slack. She adjusted just enough to peak one eye around the corner.
The room she looked into was huge, the high ceiling decorated in riches of all sorts.
Odin kneeled upon the ground, holding a draped woman in his arms. He was distraught. She was beautiful – high cheekbones, rich flawless skin, and long tendrils of curled, golden hair spilling across her shoulders and the floor around her. Blood did the same around her midsection.
Jane's stomach clenched painfully in the same spot. Her mouth fell open.
"It was supposed to be her."
Odin uttered the broken words to his guardsmen and Jane swore she broke along with them.
"…Malekith was searching for her. Bring the prisoner to me."
Emerald eyes flickered down to her just as she snapped back to face him. They pinned her harder than his grasp.
Odin's words awoke panic in her chest.
Loki somehow tensed further. His brow dipped in a swift thought. His jaw twitched.
Without warning, he ripped her away from the wall and down the corridor, leaving the heart-wrenching sight behind them.
He had been the civil one once. Young and foolish.
Even so much as to hold faith that one day, the idiotic oaf they called his brother would develop a sliver of compassion for those that he would never be fully capable of understanding.
During his adolescence, Thor had certainly put more bodies into the ground than Loki could ever dream of matching; never having to face a higher punishment than a stern talking to from Odin.
Though, when Loki thought about it, he would have chosen a thousand lashings over one of those anyway.
For a while there, he had almost believed that the just and mighty Thor had found his way. That after all his efforts, a mere mortal had been the one to lead his brother to repentance. The way he fought so hard against the Destroyer to protect his precious Midgard - to protect her.
But, oh how far too late she had been.
He'd watched on from the shadows just moments ago as the real Thor came out to play. The way his hammer smashed into the masks of the Dark Elves until metal and flesh became one. That was the brother he knew. The one he'd grown up with. Learned to love. So fiercely protective, yet so tragically misled.
He hadn't even had to distract the Dark Elves with a dead end lead. How easily they would have followed his lies. But Thor had done most of the work for him – for once.
But that didn't leave him any less at fault.
Thor had been the fool to bring the infected mortal to Asgard. He had led the enemies straight to them. To reap his trinket's plague among the realm.
To leave their mother lying in ruin.
And because of her – because of the coveted power that coursed through this unfortunate mortal's veins – his last link to the realm he once believed to be his own was ripped so suddenly from him that it boiled down to the deepest cells of his icy blood.
His last rational thought had been to shield himself. Both from her scourge and the eyes of the guards.
Only one prisoner would be captured this day.
Somewhere in the haze, he'd heard the name of his mother's murderer.
Malekith.
And something within him snapped.
Epigram: Unholy Confssions - Avenged Sevenfold