**TRIGGER WARNING** for this chapter in the end note (to avoid spoilers.) This chapter has some pretty messed up themes so I encourage you to take a quick look if you're concerned, also I wrote a quick explainer of need-to-know events in the chapter so you can move on to the next one without missing anything important.
A sickening pain seared its way through Reagan's skull and brought her back to a groggy state of consciousness many hours later. She winced against it and the moment she moved, every muscle in her body sang out in protest. It hurt. Everything hurt. She moved to stretch her limbs in an attempt to ease some of her discomfort.
She froze. Her eyes shot open.
Reagan felt the colour draining from her face as she looked down to find her wrists manacled to the cold, steel chair she was seated in. She tried moving her feet but her ankles were the same. Biting metal. Clasped so painfully tight around her limbs that she could feel it cutting into her circulation. She tugged against the restraints, already knowing it was useless. She hissed as the action only served to jolt pain through her joints.
She sucked in a deep, quivering breath and it was only then that she noticed the putrid stench of bodies staining the air.
And it was then that she realised they chanting.
It surrounded her. Low and rhythmic and somehow... animal. Beastly.
Slowly, Reagan raised her head, surveying her surroundings. What she saw made her blood run cold. The chair she was manacled at the centre of a strange, dark amphitheatre. Surrounding her were rows of stands, rising in grandeur the higher and further back they went. Every level was populated with creatures identical to the ones that had been waiting for her and Loki when they had returned through Asta's portal.
They were chanting.
Two hundred of them, at least.
And every last one of them had their gaze fixed upon her.
When Reagan thought of dread - of what it felt like in its rawest forms - three distinct times in her life came to mind. The first was when her mother sat her down at the age of eighteen and told her for the first time that she was sick. The second was when she'd woken up naked and alone, totally engulfed in flames in a strange, remote field in Norway. And the third was when she'd watched a wormhole to the other side of the universe open up above New York and spew forth a legion of enemies that wanted them all dead.
Those moments. Those awful, soul-shattering moments... they paled in comparison to the way it felt when she then heard Loki scream her name. The way it ripped from his throat, pained and ragged, as if he'd been doing it for hours. Trying to coax her awake - to know that she was even still alive.
Her head snapped in his direction, toward the other end of the stage, and a sob burst from her lips.
He was on his knees.
Crude, heavy shackles were clamped tightly around wrists, around his neck.
His tunic had been torn away and slashes of crusted blood now adorned his chest, his arms and - she suspected - his back. It looked as though he'd been flogged into submission. Or rather, that's what they'd been attempting to do. From the way he strained against his chains - tried to move even an inch closer to her - they hadn't quite managed it yet.
Tears clouded her vision of him but she couldn't look away.
"Loki," she whimpered, her fingers strained as though reaching for him, but the manacles held her resolutely in place.
She couldn't move.
She couldn't move.
"Reagan, it's alright," Loki called to her, trying desperately to hold her attention as he watched the panic bloom in her.
And her heart ached painfully in her chest as her expression crumpled. She shook her head hopelessly as she held his gaze - held onto the only thing she had to ground her.
"It's going to be alr-"
"Silence!"
Loki's reassurances were cut short when one of the creatures flanking him brought the butt of its weapon down hard into Loki's temple. The force of the blow rocked him, forcing him to collapse forward. Loki grunted as he tried to right himself back to his knees, struggling against the chains. Before he could pull himself up, rough, violent hands took hold of him and forced him back into a position of submission.
"Stop it!" Reagan screamed as she struggled against her bindings, but all it earned was a smack across the face.
She hadn't even realised she'd been flanked by the creatures herself.
Roughly, one of the beasts grabbed a fistful of her hair and forced her head to the side.
The instant that the length of her neck was exposed she felt the sharp sting of another needle and a fresh wave of nausea and drowsiness instantly overtook her. She heard Loki roar in protest, and the blunt-force noise of him taking another blow. The world around her seemed to spin on an axis and the edge of her vision began to blur. This time the drug wasn't as strong - not enough to knock her out like the first time, but enough to mute the tether between her and Loki down to a mere whisper. She reached for it all the same, even the muted presence of him was something.
I'm here, she told him, unsure if he could even hear her. I love you. Please, know that...
As her head grew heavy and her chin lulled down onto her chest, Loki let loose another rage-filled roar. The air sizzled with magic. Reagan lifted her head just enough to watch as brilliant green energy coiled up him. He was fighting with everything he had. Chained and beaten and on his knees, he was fighting.
His efforts were only met with another lashing and a needle jabbed into his neck.
A booming cheer from their audience sounded in response.
Another sob swelled in Reagan's throat.
It was then that another of the creatures stepped out into the amphitheatre. A large, hulking thing that had the air of a General. It moved with authority, eyed the others as if daring any one of them to step out of line. None did. In fact, a hush fell over the spectators as he made his way across the stage, his gaze fixed upon Reagan. Its skin seemed thicker than the rest, it still rippled open as it moved, revealing the underlayer of secondary flesh, but it moved in far more solid pieces, as if halfway turned to stone.
It looked... indestructible.
Closer and closer, the Atraxi moved closer to her, until they were toe to toe, and he stood, looming over her. She managed to lift her head to meet his eye. That simple action caused the creature to scowl in disgust. He leaned in closer to her - dangerously close - inspecting her features. And Reagan recoiled at the rancid smell of rot it seemed to bring with it. She tried to summon the energy to lash out - to do some kind of damage to the creature while she had the chance - but the sedative they'd just pumped into her veins made it nearly impossible to even keep her eyes open, let alone to attack.
The General seemed to detect exactly that, a sneer marred its features.
"Let's begin," he growled before turning away from Reagan to address the on-lookers.
"Atraxis!" he roared at them and was answered by a symphony of howls and cheers.
This lasted for almost a full minute before the creatures fell silent once more, waiting for the General to speak again.
"Eons ago," he growled, stalking along the platform, "the Atraxis were a mighty race. Our strength was unrivalled by anything that existed in all the universe. We were supreme. Unparalleled. And feared by all. The universe was ours to conquer."
The General raised his fist into the air, and his audience once again fell silent. Reagan managed to lift her head to take in the sight of them again - their anticipation was palpable. Broad chests heaved, meaty hands twitched eagerly. Whatever was coming, they'd been waiting for it. Waiting for a long time.
"Our people were poised to go forth and conquer," the General called out. "To irradicate any other force that might stand even a chance at usurping our place as the apex species of this universe. We believed that nothing could stop us... Until The Sickness came."
A chorus of anguished screeches rang out from the audience.
"The Sickness laid waste to our people. To our lands. It eviscerated our livestock. Took our crops. It crippled even our mightiest warriors. It stole from us our children."
The General turned to spare Reagan what she could only read as a look of utter disgust.
"And it rendered our females infertile."
Outraged cries rang out once again and a chill swept through Reagan's gut. She tugged uselessly at her restraints once again.
"One percent," the General went on, turning his attention away from Reagan and back to his audience. "One percent of our females could continue to bear young. We had no other choice than to put them to work, attempting to replenish our decimated numbers. It was our hope that the generation they bore would be free of the burden of illness the Sickness left behind, but alas, the generation bore by the First were even weaker than those first gripped by the Sickness."
Loki? Reagan called down the bond. Even in her own mind, her voice sounded sluggish.
He didn't reply. Perhaps he couldn't.
The bond felt wrong - muted. Whatever concoction of poisons coursed through their veins was enough to dull the link. But it was still there. And Reagan clutched onto it with everything she had. She prayed that he could feel her.
She wanted - needed - to hear his voice more than anything else in the world in that moment.
She lulled her head to look his way to find his face had paled, he watched on in horror as the General continued to speak.
"Our people kept dying," he went on. "The females who could bear calves kept dying - either overworked or taken by other ailments The Sickness left in its wake."
Another sizzle of magic coursed through the atmosphere then - it was stronger this time, there was something more desperate to it. It earned him another clubbing.
Reagan squeezed her eyes shut, unable to bear the sight of him taking another lashing - another needle jabbed into his neck.
"He's metabolising the sedative too fast," the creature pumping sedative into him growled.
"Be careful how much of that shit you pump into him," the one beside him grunted in return. "If you kill him before the ceremony, who knows what the Mother'll do to you."
"I've never seen an Asgardian with such a strong resistance to it."
The creature leaned over Loki, inhaled deeply and growled.
"Whatever this thing is," he snarled. "It's no Asgardian. Stinks of something else."
The beast beside him grunted.
"No matter. Not like it's us who's gotta eat it."
Low, throaty laughter filled the air. And bile rose up Reagan's throat as she remembered... Remembered what Odin and Frigga had told her about the Atraxis that first day in Asgard. It felt like a lifetime ago. Reagan had barely registered it - had been largely unphased by this faceless threat off somewhere out there in the universe. It had hardly seemed important when her mind was being invaded. When she'd been ripped from her home. When she spent her every waking moment trying to rid herself of a tether she'd never asked for.
But now they were here.
The Atraxis.
The things she was warned to fear above all else.
And the stories that she'd heard of them were coming back to her, laced with a fresh horror like nothing she'd ever known before.
A tear slipped down her face.
"Seventy-two," the General growled to his soldiers. "We were left with seventy-two serviceable females. Seventy-two to carry on our legacy. To try to continue our race."
He turned his withering gaze towards Loki.
"And then the Asgardian came."
Even in her stupor, Reagan's brow drew together in confusion.
"She's renowned throughout the universe today as a Goddess," the General told them, his voice brimming with disgust. "She's called a saviour. What she did to us... is referred to as a gift. She is worshipped. Legions of fools still crave her curse to this day. They pray for it.
"Her name was Kaha. She could reach into a being and know what should have been unknowable. She could invade the mind, weigh what was there - they had the nerve to call it a soul. An essence. She leeched from every being she came into contact with. Until finally she found what she wanted on Atraxia.
"The Stolen Womb. She was young when the witch took her - branded her with that foul mark. She was strong for one born after the Sickness. She could have helped us rebuild. The seventy-third. But the Asgardian came and she put her brand upon her and marked her as her own. She stole her away from us and the universe rejoiced."
Outrage thundered through the audience and this time The General allowed them to revel in it. He hung his head as if telling the tale nearly broke him. As if he were suffering through it. The General waited patiently until the excited cries slowly died away.
"Seventy-two. Seventy-two soon became fifty. Fifty soon became thirty-four. Thirty-four soon became eleven. Indeed, it seemed that our fate was sealed, and our people were doomed to extinction... Until another was cursed with the mark.
"This time, when the curse befell us, they were both our own. Rogat, the Traitor, and one of the Eleven. She had bore some of the most promising calves our people had seen since the Sickness. But still, it didn't seem enough. We believed it too late to undo the decimation of our race."
The General gazed up into the audience around, met the eyes of those watching him.
"Rogat knew the law," he told them solemnly. "He knew well that if any one of our viable females were to be stained with the mark again they would protected above all costs - forbidden from ever being in the company of their twin-cursed again. Rogat knew this was for the good of all our people. He was selfish. And he was a fool. He stole the female away and tried to flee with her. He took her into hiding in the outlands, believing he could covet her for his own. Selfish. Stupid. Dooming them both to nothing more than death by starvation.
"For ten days and ten nights, the female waited to be found - to be saved - but after the tenth night, she could wait no longer. Driven to sheer desperation her thirst and her hunger, she took up a blade while Rogat slept and slit him open. Half-mad with starvation, she feasted on fistfuls of his flesh while he still lay dying before her.
"She was still coated in his blood when she returned to us. And when put back to work, she went willingly. And soon, she began to bear calves. Strong calves."
Reagan knew she was running out of time. She needed to act - to find a way out of her shackles. She tried to summon her flames but she was so tired, so weak. The sedative was too powerful. She could barely even hold her own head up. She couldn't muster so much an ember. She'd never felt so weak. So helpless.
"Before long, the last remaining females died off. But it mattered not. Because the Mother had grown stronger. The flesh she had consumed - flesh marred with the curse that bound them to one another - it made her all the more fruitful. And she spawned young who grew into the most elite specimens our species had ever produced. Many of whom are here with us today."
Proud cries sounded throughout the crowd.
And an outraged roar from Loki soon joined their cries as he mustered all his strength once more to call forth his powers one last time. The atmosphere seared with magic. Blinding green energy burst forth from his chest, sent throttling toward the General with indescribable force. It should have been enough to eviscerate him entirely. Loki might as well have splashed him with a glass of water. Laughter rang out throughout the amphitheatre, and the General turned slowly to size him up, totally unphased by the display of power. He sauntered slowly towards Loki. Didn't react as Loki was once again clubbed over the head and injected with a fresh dose of sedative. He waited for a few moments while the poison took effect. He stood over Loki as he slumped forward, groaned in protest, attempted to pull himself upright again.
"The children born of the Mother were stronger than any who came before the Sickness," the General spoke calmly, looming over Loki as he spoke while the trickster panted for breath. "The consuming of the curse made them stronger, more resilient, improved their intelligence, their stamina was greater, it was nigh on impossible for them to grow fatigued.
The creature crouched down then, lowering himself to Loki's level. He clutched hold of Loki's throat, forcing his face up so that Loki had no choice but to look him in the eye.
"And it rendered us immune to the whims of magic," the General growled in Loki's face.
Loki searched the beast's features - the God of lies, wanting for a lie like he never desired before. He could not find one there. Even with the bond, muted as it was, Reagan could read it in his face.
Reagan paled. And for the first time since she'd regained consciousness, she thought of Asta. They'd killed her. They'd had her on her knees, chained her to the ground like it was nothing. Reagan had felt her power - just a drop of it - and though she had hidden her fear from the Witchling, it had been like nothing she'd ever imagined was possible. She'd held impossible power - unbridled power - and so, if she could be overpowered by these creatures, she and Loki didn't stand a chance.
They were going to meet their end at the hands of these creatures.
Their story would be extinguished before it ever had a chance to ignite. And even in her state of sheer horror, it broke Reagan's heart. How desperately she wanted to escape it. How desperately she wanted to spare Loki from a tragic end and another onslaught of undeserved pain.
"The Mother grows weary," the General uttered, still holding Loki by the throat. "She is approaching her end. She is weakening. For millennia, she has held strong, knowing that without her we would be doomed. She has lay in wait, for us to find another who can take her place. Another female cursed with the mark. A female young enough to bear children. A female who can consume the flesh of her twin-cursed and then service the cause of the Atraxis."
Loki glowered at the creature before him.
"The young that we sire will be half-breeds-" he shot Reagan a look of disgust as if it was actually her fault, "- but it what must be done for the survival of our race!"
He loosed his grip on Loki's throat and turned to stalk towards her. Slowly Reagan turned her attention to meet the eye of the General who was already looking at her with immeasurable disdain. Her mouth parted in horror, unable to truly put voice to her racing thoughts. What these things intended to do to Loki - do to her - it was a fate worse than death.
Desperately, Reagan tried to summon her flames but the stupor she was slave to now was too strong. It was taking everything in her just to stay conscious.
"She waits upon Atraxa, too weak now for voyages. Holding on until we find one who can take her place. She will rejoice this night. She can finally rest. You... She will adore you. And I will give you to her. The ultimate gift I could bestow upon the one who saved us all. Freedom. Freedom from that fucking mark."
The General pulled himself upright again, turned his attention back toward his people.
"She shall oversee tonight's events - it is her burden to ensure we carry out the ceremony correctly. And it is our duty to ensure the ceremony proceeds without interruption. We came close just once before. An Asgardian pairing. We feed the breeder the feast. She was primed. Ready. We did not anticipate the army that would come for them."
He threw Reagan another disgusted look.
"No battalion is coming for these two. They are ours to bend to our will."
He moved to survey Loki, on his hands and knees, fighting against the serum, one last time.
"And it is time now to present to her the fruits of our labour..." the General rumbled.
He moved to the epicentre of the stage.
"Behold," he cried with his arm outstretched towards a massive domed screen that loomed above them. "The Mother."
The screen growled to life with the most grotesque sight Reagan had ever seen in her life. The thing on the screen was Atraxian, but it was larger than the creatures here - bloated. Where their onyx skin parted to reveal orange under-flesh, hers herniated out like swollen wounds. Her face was impossibly gaunt, as if there were no muscle left in it at all - a rather macabre juxtaposition to her bloated body. And long, heavy, sagging breast hung to either side of an impossibly distended, swollen stomach. It was so stretched it had turned a ghastly purple and angry varicose veins rooted up and down the flesh of it. It was moving... as if something - some things - writhed inside it. And perhaps worst of all, the thing that made the sight before Reagan so impossible to gaze upon, was the far-too-familiar iridescent mark which adorned the centre of the creature's chest.
It turned Reagan's stomach, she had to look away.
"My children," she cooed upon the monitor, her voice echoing out over the amphitheatre. "My lineage... The determination - the resilience - you and your brothers have shown throughout this search, it fills me with unimaginable pride."
The Atraxis howled up at the screen in response.
"The children sired here tonight will grow to be strong, proud warriors. They will spread forth throughout the Realms and reclaim the glories once meant for our people. We will build. We will grow. We will conquer. We will return our people to glory!"
"You're fucking insane," Reagan managed to utter, her head still spinning from the sedative lacing her bloodstream.
The General didn't respond. He only took a fistful of her hair and forced her to turn in Loki's direction, watching as he was lashed once more.
"Please, just let him go," she whimpered as she was forced to watch his cries of agony once more - all the while knowing it was useless.
Her begging seemed to only bring the Mother joy. She loomed forward, gazing adoringly at her new plaything.
"Such a shame I can't be present for the ceremony. How I'd adore for her to first suckle."
Reagan gagged then, involuntarily.
"My children, let us waste no more time. Rejoice with me now, as we watch our new Mother indulge upon the feast."
As if on queue the floor beneath Loki groaned loudly and began to part. He looked down as a set of swing-doors gave way below him, though he remained knelt on a grate - the grate he was shackled to. A blast of stifling heat filled the amphitheatre and Reagan let out an anguished moan. Loki's torso was illuminated by a fiery glow which flickered over his features from below, casting dancing shadows over him. It might have been beautiful, if not for the heat.
Reagan's blood ran cold.
They were going to roast him.
She was going to have to watch him burn.
Her soulmate.
Their bond - corrupted. Mutilated.
And they were powerless to stop it.
Loki raised his head, and when his gaze met hers his features softened, almost reminiscent - as if the fleeting time they'd shared had been enough. She could almost read it there in his gaze - worth it... better than to go without. He looked at her... As if she were the only thing that mattered in all the universe.
"It's alright, love. Do what must be done," he told her calmly - peacefully. It sounded like 'goodbye'.
"Loki."
With nothing more that he could do, Loki clenched his fists and bowed his head, waiting to be incinerated.
TRIGGER WARNING: Heavy implications of rape and forced pregnancy throughout this chapter. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN. But it is mentioned more than once.
If you'd like to skip and still follow the story, here is a brief summary with no uncomfy details: (SPOILERS HERE obviously) Reagan and Loki have been taken prisoner by the Atraxis because they believe the magic that forms the bond can be used to strengthen their people. They have used it in the past to make their species immune to magic - this is why Asta, as powerful as she was, couldn't fight them off. This chapter is mostly exposition about the history of their people. The next chapter will begin with Loki in chains set to be roasted alive as part of the ceremony. Reagan is chained to a chair, conscious but sedated to the point that she is powerless.
Also just a quick message to anon reader Stephany who left me the sweetest feedback, thank you 3 I appreciate you so much.
Also, also... the hit count on FF as stopped working a few months ago and I've heard whispers the site might go under. It may be wrong! I haven't looked into it, but if we do lose this site, I've also published this story on Ao3 under the same name and handle if you want to find it xoxox love you all