OMG I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR LIKE, FOREVER TO WRITE THIS CHAPTER. LIKE IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY HOW LONG I'VE BEEN PATIENTLY WAITING.
AND OMG, I NEARLY CRIED AT LIKE FIVE DIFFERENT PARTS. FAIR WARNING.
~Music~
1st Part- And He Shall Smite the Wicked (Hunchback of Notre Dame) O.M.G. This song is PERFECT AND FEELZY.
2nd Part- Lily's Theme (Deathy Hallows, Pt. 2); Godric Hollow Graveyard (Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1)
Chapter Sixty
~Nobody's POV~
"N-no," cries Thea as she darts out of the way of Loki as he bounds at her, his dagger coming so close to her, she can see her frightened face reflecting in the mirror. "I don't want to fight you!"
He whirls around, his hair whipping partially over his face so that she can see one silver eye narrowing at her. There is no mercy there.
"Please," whispers Thea as he walks towards her. She begins to back up, taking out her own dagger and holding it out to him, "Loki, no."
He stops, standing in the middle of the room. Lightning crackles around him, throwing him into shades of black and white. The sword sheathed at his side glints. The terrible red scar on his face lights up, and Thea subconsciously reaches up to touch her own still-tingling cut.
She takes a deep breath. "Please. Think about this. Think about what you're going to do. This isn't you, this is Neidra, please please don't do this!"
Without a word, as a silent hunter, he regards her.
Then, he lunges, and Thea yelps, diving down onto the floor just as another roll of thunder sends the room in a vibrating rumble.
She's just in time to bring her dagger up before he sends his down on her. The metals clang and Thea kicks, striking Loki in the chest and sending him backwards.
Fire erupts from her fingers, sending up an inferno of a wall between her and Loki. She cries out as some of the flames spark up to hit her in the face, burning her cut, and she hears Loki's own shouts of pain.
Staggering backwards on the floor, she turns and runs, through the center of the room. She looks back-Loki has turned, sparks dropping out of his hair and from his face. His lips curl in a sneer of anger, and he stalks towards her.
Thea flees, running up the stairs along the massive table, clinging to the rail as she does. She reaches the center bridge one side filled with books and the other a rail overlooking the main part of the library.
Loki leaps up over the rail, landing in front of her in a crouch, his cape swinging around him.
She screams as he grabs her, sending her with a painful crack into the wall. Stars run through her skull, and several dusty books fall to the ground. She seizes a piece of mortar on the wall and, using it as a grip, jumps up and kicks forward, successfully hitting Loki's stomach so that he goes crashing down.
She runs around him, just in time to send another burst of fire at him, but with a flourish of his hand, the flames go up in a scorching steam, fogging him from her vision.
Her breath comes quickly, and her fingers are shaking as she looks through the thick steam. She coughs from the heat, blinking as her eyes water.
The dagger misses her by less than an inch, and only because Thea saw the shadow of Loki falling on her from behind. She turns, and uses his bent knee as a springboard, but he whirls, and she goes falling to the carpet, crying out as her skull hits the floor with a resounding crunch.
Then, he's on her.
His dagger falls to his side, because he's using his hands to pin her down. She begins to thrash, screaming at him and kicking furiously, but although he is weakened, his strength still overpowers her. He uses his body to hold down her legs, and one hand tightens around her wrists, holding them above her head.
"STOP IT! STOP IT, LOKI, NO NO NO!" She looks up in horror as Loki unsheathes a smaller, sharper knife from his side and raises it above his head. She begins to slide one her sweaty hands around in his frantically. "LOKI!"
Summoning all her strength, she twists her free hand, the one Loki had not been trying to control, upwards, and the knife goes flying out of Loki's hand, clattering a few feet from him.
She buts her head up, twisting hysterically, but Loki uses both of his hands now to lower her shoulders slowly, gritting his teeth as he forces her back down. She writhes around, but to no avail; his hair falls curtains around her face, and all she can see are his eyes. His sickening silver eyes.
She kicks him in the groin with all her strength, and with his grunt of pain, he is distracted enough so that Thea can roll out from under him, seizing her dagger and Loki's.
Leaping up, she dodges Loki as he grabs for her, and runs away, back upwards along the rows of books.
Looking over her shoulder, she sees that he's already on his feet, and has already grabbed his knife back. He looks furious now, his fingers clenched and his teeth bared. The lightning grows louder as he stalks towards her.
He holds up his hand and his dagger comes flying from her hand into his. She is just fast enough to hold onto her own ruby dagger, but now, Loki is coming at her with two glinting, wicked points.
Suddenly, Thea realizes that she can't beat him. No matter what, he will always be stronger than her, faster, and ready for anything.
She begins to plead, "Stop, stop, Loki, STOP!"
She reaches up to block his dagger with a clang of her own.
"PLEASE!"
She whirls around, blocking his second, lower blow from the short knife. She has never moved so fast as Loki comes at her again and again with the two knives, and Thea can only dance around one and block the other. She stumbles against the carpet and scarcely is able to throw off the smaller knife so that it flies out of his hand and falls over the railing down to the floor below.
But he's so much taller than her, and bigger, that his strength has need for only one weapon. He swings the dagger at her, and catches her with a brutal slice on her arm. She screams as blood gushes, dripping to the floor.
"N-no!" she sobs, and her screams become more and more desperate, "Daddy!"
He laughs. He laughs.
Thea looks around wildly. Below her, about ten feet, is the hard floor. She's at a dead end of the rail, and the only thing forward is Loki, whose dagger is now dripping from her blood.
She turns to look at him, tears running from her eyes, almost obscuring her vision.
Then, she throws her hand forward so that more fire erupts between her and Loki. It burns her already bleeding arm as she moves it forward, trying to push it towards Loki. Again, he parries it back so that it becomes steam.
But she doesn't wait for him to come at her again. Instead,she turns and jumps over the rail.
The fall is short, but Thea lands clumsily, and cries out as her right ankle cracks.
The pain is throbbing throughout her body, but Thea pushes the throbbing sensation away. Grabbing her dagger, which had landed a short distance from her, she stands and begins to run towards the door as the thunder grows louder and louder. The rain is pattering hard over the roof, like a thousand kettle drums.
Fear and agony are bunched up in her. She can't tell what is the rain, what is her heart, what is her breath.
Most of all, she can't tell what are Loki's footsteps.
He grabs her arm, and whirls her around to face him.
She doesn't even have time to scream as the sword runs through her heart.
*
Thea's necklace breaks apart as simultaneously, Loki's bracelet snaps open and does the same. They hit the ground at the same time.
As Loki slides the sword out from Thea, he stumbles back as his eyes flash and then turn back to their luminous green.
With a clatter, the sword falls next to the golden bands and Thea's dagger, echoing through the room.
Thea is swaying, her eyes rolling, blood dripping out in a thick crimson flood from her shirt, staining it as it spreads.
She looks over at him, her face burnt and cut, but her eyes still bright green.
"Daddy..." She whispers, and then she falls.
Loki catches her, sinking to the floor, holding his daughter as she begins to quake, blood running out of her mouth.
"No," says Loki, shaking his head, wrapping his arms around her, "No, Thea, Thea, look at me, Thea!"
She turns, slowly, so that her eyes meet his.
Loki's words begin to slur as tears run down his cheeks, "Thea, no, you can't...I couldn't...Thea, stay with me, darling, stay with me."
Her wrist shaking so that the charm bracelet clangs, she holds up her hand. Loki takes it and holds it to his heart.
"It's...okay..." she rasps, throwing her head back and wheezing, coughing up blood.
"Thea," he moans, at a loss for words, leaning down so that their foreheads touch. He feels the sweat on her brow and his tears mix with hers. She is gasping and gagging on her own blood, violently shaking now, "No, THEA, please!"
She looks up at him, and her eyes are one shade dimmer, "I..." she whispers.
"Don't do this, don't do this," he hisses hoarsely, his body starting to fail him as he looks down at his daughter, "I can't live...if you go...kitten, please."
Her lips tremble, but she manages to smile ever so slightly. Her hand shaking, she reaches up and wraps thin, cold fingers around his hand. "...love you..." she murmurs.
And then, her fingers fall, as does her head, and her green eyes are lost to Loki as she takes one last breath and then dies.
*
"Thea," chokes Loki, "Thea, no, Thea, NO!"
He shakes as he cradles her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close to his chest. Her head falls backwards limply, her black hair hanging over his lap.
Loki's chin moves furiously, and tears stream from his eyes, falling onto Thea like rain.
He screams.
He throws his head back and screams again and again, howling into the storm as he holds his daughter.
"THEA!"
Grief seizes him, and he can no longer move, only limply keep Thea in his arms as he sobs over her body.
"Kitten," he groans, tracing over her bleeding, cold face with shaking fingers, moving her hair away from her wet cheeks. "I will never...never see those beautiful green eyes again." He leans down and kisses her forehead, his shoulders shaking, tears running from his cheeks down onto hers. His eyes tightly shut, he whispers, "I love you."
*
The thunder and lightning continue to run over Loki and Thea, throwing them into shadows as Loki cries over his daughter, the God of Mischief who never cried until Thea came into his life. And now, she is gone.
Thea's hand is still on the floor, curled up slightly still from when her fingers had wrapped around Loki's. Her lips are cracked and rid of color, and her eyes shut, eyelashes still wet from the tears that had run down as she had pleaded for her father.
And now, he is pleading with her.
The golden necklace lies broken next to Loki and Thea, but one necklace still remains around Thea's neck. The dolphin shaped stone, that Jack had given her.
As Loki continues to sob, holding Thea as if he never wants to let her out of his arms, the dolphin begins to glow. It turns golden briefly, and then the gold vanishes, trailing down Thea's broken body. The trail continues over her collarbone and down, down towards the gaping wound over her chest.
Loki, still swept up in his guilt-ridden misery, bent over Thea, doesn't notice as the gold surrounds Thea's heart in rapid circles. He doesn't notice the gold entering her body, and he doesn't notice it shine brightly before vanishing just as the wound under her shirt begins to vanish too.
A small breath, softer than a whisper, escapes from Thea's lips, and her eyes open with a shutter.
She feels Loki's arms around her and feels him shaking, his mussed hair falling over her. And so, Thea begins to breathe again.
Her hand no longer shaking, she reaches up and touches his wet face. "L-Loki?"
He jerks his face up and looks down at her. She smiles tremulously at him.
"Thea?" he gasps, hardly daring to believe that he is staring right into her green eyes once again.
She smiles again, and then breaks down into tears, trying to lean up. Still shocked, he wraps his arm around her back and pulls her towards him, and she throws her own arms around him.
"D-Daddy," she sobs, crying into his shoulder.
He pulls her back and just stares at her. Her arms still around his neck, she closes her eyes tightly, trying to stop crying.
"No," he says, leaning forward and kissing both of her closed lids, feeling the salt of her tears on his lips, "Open them. Don't ever shut those eyes again."
She blinks, and her green eyes stare back at him.
"I'm so sorry," he whispers, leaning forward to kiss her forehead, then her cheeks, everywhere he can reach. Each time, he says, choking, "I'm sorry."
"I'm f-fine," she says quietly, leaning against his chest.
He tilts her head back and caresses her face. His fingers fall on the slice on the left side of her face, still inflamed and bloody. "You're...you're... what happened?"
She bites her lip, and smiles again, trying to stay positive, "N-Neidra d-did it."
He snarls, and then softens as Thea reaches up and touches his own cut, and then says, "N-Now we m-match."
"My precious girl," he whispers, kissing the tip of her small nose.
"Wh-what happened? How am I still...here?"
Loki shakes his head, and then leans down to hold the dolphin necklace in his palm. He holds it up so that she can see it. "Where did you get this?"
"J-Jack gave it to me for my birthday," she says, "He made it. It's...it's from Asgard."
He closes his eyes and sighs from fortuitous relief, "This is griyend. It is extremely rare, this rock, with miraculous powers. When carved by someone who cares, and then gifted to someone whom he loves, it has the ability to one time bring back the wearer from the shadow of death."
"Jack...loves me?" she inquires, staring at the dolphin with the beautiful blue eyes.
He smiles too, for the first time in a long time, and squeezes her shoulder, "Perhaps he does. But do you know who loves you more?"
She smiles, and as tears fill her eyes, she whispers, "You?"
"Yes," he murmurs, leaning down and kissing her forehead again, "Yes, I do."
Okay, I can't handle it.
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