For we once so loved the world by HowlingDarkness95

Chapter 52

The chitauri didn't fall immediately when Thanos did.

It took several long hours before the last of the chitauri were shot down, the Asgardian flying vessels chased after the fleeing chitauri, shooting them down mercilessly. Odin instructed Frigga to stay by the cooling body of Thanos, while he mounted Sleipnir - the horse miraculously surviving all that destruction and death - and rode amongst his men, rallying those who were still standing against the chitauri. The aliens all felt their master's death, and were enraged at it. But without a proper leader, they were scattered, aimless and easy pickings. Steve had leapt off Thanos' chest, shaking his head once to clear his mind, before gently removing his hand from the Gauntlet, laying it down at Frigga's feet reverently. At the Queen's confused glance, the Captain smiled gently, "It's not mine to begin with, and I only used it so we could take Thanos down." Then he strode away to help take down the rest of the chitauri. Frigga eyed him in surprise. The Infinity Gauntlet was a powerful weapon - arguably the most powerful in the universe, and its allure was not so easily resisted. For this man to have turned it down so easily, Frigga wondered at the strength of his will.

She guarded the body of the Titan closely, still tense and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even though she witnessed the Titan's death with her own eyes, somewhere in her heart, she didn't believe that he was dead. Not until they burned the body to dust and tore his soul to shreds - if he even had any. Her only regret was that she hadn't dealt the killing blow to the Titan. The creature who caused her family so much pain, who tore Asgard apart, who killed as he pleased because of his delusions; Frigga shook her head, a frown tugging at her lips. No, death was too easy for a creature like Thanos. The side of her that ruled as Queen told her that the threat had been neutralized, that the Titan was no longer a cause of worry. But the mother and warrior in her called out for blood, wanting to avenge the injustice that the Void creature had done to her family and her son.

Speaking of Loki, she felt her heart sink at the thought of her youngest. The raven haired prince had scooped up his young lover and vanished in a blink of an eye when Thanos fell. The mortal warriors had alarmed looks on their faces when they realized that Perseus was gone, but then the duty of getting rid of the remaining chitauri swept them up and they were pulled in to kill off the last of the chitauri. Frigga knew the mortals meant well, seeing as how they viewed Perseus as one of their own, but she also knew that Loki would never hurt Percy. Not again. Not many knew her son the way she did, and sometimes, even she felt as though he were a stranger. But adopted or no, Loki had been and still was her child, and despite his penchant for hiding beneath many layers, she was one of the only person in all the realms who knew how to peel back those layers. She tilted her head to the sky, her eyes seeking out the damaged shields that only those with seidr could see. Thanos had used horrible, dark magic and ripped apart their defenses like paper, and as the head mage in Asgard, the tattered remains of her spell draped over the realm like a battered cloth. Frigga sighed, crouching down beside the Gauntlet when she heard the victorious cries of Asgard's warriors resound. Now that there wasn't any immediate danger of the chitauri, she closed her eyes and directed her seidr to form a cage. A luminescent structure began forming between her hands as she wove the energy, tendrils of magic intertwining with one another to form an enclosed structure. Within minutes, the queen of Asgard was done, and without touching the Gauntlet, she draped her cage over it as though it were a piece of fabric, using her connection to the energy to wrap it around the artifact, silencing the call of the gems. Frigga let out a sigh of relief when the courtyard finally fell silent. She hadn't even realized that the gems had still been singing, their voices melding with the background noises, until they were one, leaving a ringing in her ears. She shook her head slightly, then lifted the covered Gauntlet, striding back into the main hall. Her husband could handle the clean up of the battle, it was his job anyway.