When A Good Man Goes To War

One day, Loki and Anne were down in the weapons vault; Loki was showing her a Bloodaxe, often wielded by executioners,

“It has basically the same strengths as Mjolnir, except anyone can wield it; it is very useful in battle. However, the downside of this weapon is that the savage nature of its enchantment begins to corrupt the mind of whoever wields it.”

“So, it would be horrible if it fell into enemy hands.”

“Precisely. Which is why we keep it locked away here, protected by The Destroyer.”

Anne nodded, smiling up at Loki; it made her happy to see how passionate he got about things like this. She was just leaning up to kiss him when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye; she looked at the wall in amazement as it began to frost over. The same began happening to the floors as well and soon the entire place was coated in ice and the temperature had dropped. She looked at Loki with confusion,

“Loki, what’s going on?”

Loki’s face was white as a sheet as he took in the state of the room,

“No, it can’t possibly be. Not again.”

“What is it?”

“Frost Giants!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, a large man with a bluish tint to his skin and red eyes appeared before Loki and Anne, wielding a spear; although shorter than Anne would have imagined a giant to be, he still towered over them, an evil grin plastered on his face.

“You are in my way, Midgardian,” he said, moving towards Anne who was standing directly in front of the Bloodaxe. She cowered away as the giant from Jotunheim raised his spear, closing her eyes and preparing for the blow; but it never came. She opened her eyes again to find Loki in front of her, wielding some kind of staff that was fending the Frost Giant off; she had no idea where the staff had come from.

“Run Anne! Go! Now!”

She took off, heading towards the door but turned abruptly and ran back towards Loki, who was still battling the foreign warrior; remembering her dream, she knew there was no way she was leaving Loki behind. At some point during the skirmish, the Frost Giant had managed to reverse their positions and Loki was now farther from the weapon, trying to prevent it from being stolen. Anne was less than a foot from them when she noticed another Frost Giant appear behind Loki, going in for the kill with his spear while he was distracted. Without thinking, Anne leapt towards him, knocking him off balance and preventing the spear from going through the love of her life. Angered, the gigantic warrior turned towards her, thrusting his spear through her middle without a second thought; Anne clutched at the place where the weapon had entered her, gasping in pain, as the Frost Giant sneered down at her.

“No!!!!” Loki yelled, running to Anne as the spear was roughly yanked out of her; she collapsed to her knees, then down on her side, holding her hands over the bleeding wound. With tears streaming down his face, Loki kneeled by her side; he looked back over just in time to see the two Jotuns vanishing with the axe, barely hearing them say as they disappeared,

“Perhaps next time you will not turn down so gracious an offer.”

Sobbing, Loki took Anne into his arms, calling for the guards and instructing them to fetch Thor. He ran his fingers through her hair, kissing her over and over, whispering to her,

“Anne, my love. It’s going to be okay, my queen, I love you; please don’t leave me. Anne...please...I need you.”

Anne opened her eyes, gazing up at Loki, his tears falling on her neck and face.

“Loki, my king,” she whispered, lifting her fingers to brush his cheek; he grabbed her hand and placed a kiss into her palm, “I love you. I always will.”

She closed her eyes once again, the loss of blood causing her to lose consciousness just as Thor ran in; he knelt next to her in Loki’s arms, looking at the tears streaming down Loki’s cheeks,

“Brother,” he said, “what happened here?”

“It...it was the Frost Giants. They just appeared; they were after the Bloodaxe. One of them went after her so I tried to...fend him off. But another appeared...and...she...she pushed him out of the way before he could kill me; so he turned his wrath on her.”

Thor placed a hand on Loki’s shoulder before lifting Anne in his arms,

“We must get her to the healing room immediately. I think she can still be saved.”

The Asgardian king then took off down the hall, Anne in his arms; Alice, who had been standing at the door, also crying, went over to Loki, who was still collapsed on the floor sobbing. She knelt beside him, letting him weep in her lap for several moments before helping him stand and leading him towards the healing room.