Between the Lines

The Void (TW)

**Please note, this chapter will feature descriptions of murder, torture, assault, mental abuse and POW type of scenarios which may be upsetting for some readers. Please proceed with caution and skip the chapter if necessary. Your mental wellbeing will always come first**

June 7th, 2010

          How had I gotten here... where was here? I groaned, sitting up only to bump my head against the grate that posed as a ceiling so low that I could not fully sit up. The Asgardian dungeons were not this cruel nor crudely made, so if I was not there where was I and why had I been placed in a cage? I wrapped my fingers around the bars of the grate, pushing with all of my might as I screamed for help. I screamed and begged until my throat was raw, my breathing erratic. Was this Hel?

   I vaguely remembered the cold, silent emptiness of The Void. Vaguely remembered moving to stop Thor from shattering the bridge- He had shattered the bridge... He had shattered the bridge... While I and Eibhlin had been standing upon it. I began to remember then, being tossed into the air like a hat as I pulled her close; the scent of her still lingered on my hands... My hands, these hands... The hands of a monster. I stared down at them as I turned them in what little light fell into my cage. They were the same as they always had been, the same pale skin of an Asgardian prince. Only I was no Asgardian Prince... I was Loki, son of no one, coming from nowhere, king of nothing...

   Movement above me had me clutching the grate again as I yelled. A strange creature with a blue and purple face adorned with metal glared down at me. "Shut up," it snarled, its voice vaguely feminine in its raspy quality. A metal arm yanked the grate open as one the same blue as its face pressed a paper of some kind to a nearby censor. It was a woman, her slender frame clothed in leather armor dyed a rather beautiful mauve color. She was terrifying. "Move."

   "Where are you taking me; who are you?"

   "I said move!" Her cold metal arm grasped me by the back of my collar, yanking me up and out of the cage as she tossed me aside with ease.

   She clapped handcuffs to me before pushing me down a narrow hallway and then an even narrower corridor before we came out into a large metal hall and onto a grated bridge that swayed oddly. I felt the ground shudder as we stepped out onto the grating, my heart taking up residence in my throat as I gripped the sides while the woman shoved me roughly forward. There was only more series of grated bridges beneath my feet, each swinging more widely than the one I swayed upon. "What is this place?"

   "The Dark Aster. My boss wants to speak with you."

   "Your boss? Now see here, I will not speak with anyone except the man-"

   "'In charge'. Yeah; you said that yesterday and the day before that," she muttered shoving me forward again.

   How was this possible? I had no recollection of this place... No recollection of speaking to anyone. How long had I been here?

   We stepped into a large round room that resembled that of a temple, the floor intricately carved; a man screamed from a strange chair that held his head back the piece under his chin tipped up and curved as it tapered toward the back. "You cannot do this, I have been a loyal ally for- our Governments signed a peace treaty!"

   "A thousand years of war between us will not be forgotten! You Xandarians and your culture are a disease..."

   "You will never rule Xandar," the man groaned as a woman in a black robe, her face covered, tightened a bolt on the side of the seat, tightening the neckpiece further.

   "No... We will cure it!" The man then swung his axe, a cruel-looking weapon of all blunt edges, down; smashing the other's head. I jumped, closing my eyes as I looked away; the blue-skinned woman holding me in place. Had she brought me here to face the same end? I turned to look back, staring in horror as the man who had swung the axe knelt, watching as blood from the first slithered down from the chair as it traveled along the intricately carved flooring toward the center of the room. He turned his eyes toward us as the woman called out his name. "Ah, the Asgardian. Awake and prepared for another wonderous day as we journey to gift you to he who wishes for you."