This chapter is basically "I am so sorry for leaving you all for a week." 

I won't be updating for several more days. I'm clogged in work. Maybe this weekend. 

Anyway.

Music: If It Means a Lot to You- A Day to Remember         The Compound- Thor

Edit: me

Chapter Sixty

Loki carries Thea up some stairs, trying to ignore the sounds of her pained whimpers and when he can no longer ignore them, soothing her quietly. He opens the door to a darkened room and sets her down softly on the bed. "Thea, look at me," he says, sitting down next to her.

She groans and coughs and gasps, still in so much pain, and Loki puts a hand to her head, "Thea, I want you to know that I am very proud of you."

"Wha-a-t?" she coughs. Loki puts a blue hand to her forehead, trying to cool her down.

"You saved someone's life, after you swore to kill him. He deserved to die, and you saw how close I was to killing him," Loki pushes some of her hair from her eyes, "But you acted beyond your years and for that, I am proud."

"It...it hurts..." she gasps, barely able to pay attention, "It hur-"

"Shh, shh I know. Bruce and Kyle will be up soon. We won, Thea." He smiles down at her, "We won."

"Wha-a-t?"

"We won, darling. Archer is now in possession of the Pearl, meaning that he is the irrefutable master. Many of the Velah are not truly killers, but programmed to follow orders, and Archer has many friends. I think with their help, he will be able to establish a strong throne. My brother and a few others have agreed to help." Her anxious eyes clearly ask another question, and Loki answers it quickly, "Everyone is fine, Thea. You have certainly got the worst of it."

She smiles tremulously, then whimpers again, quieter this time. She is trying to be brave.

"It's all right to cry," Loki says softly as she squeezes her eyes shut, "You have been through so much pain, not just now, but over so many months. You have been so brave, kitten."

Thea gives in and begins to sob, and she cries out, as her heaving tears cause her pain on her torn-up body.  Loki sits next to her and lets her cry, murmuring calming words to her and continuing to move her matted hair from her face.

Her tears give out, purely from exhaustion, and when she does so, she gasps, "What- how- did you- how did you-"

"How did I find you?" Loki asks, taking her hand, "After the majority of the battles, and after Archer had taken the Pearl, Clint and Tony- the idiots- appeared and we all realized that you were missing. We all panicked- Kyle nearly had a heart attack- and then Archer pointed out that Videl was missing too. Little one, you cannot imagine how frightened I was when I realized this. We all immediately began to look for you, but I had a chill, an idea of where you would be, the very room we passed through earlier. It turns out, I was right."

"And...Mansar..." Thea rasps, "How...why...he's not..."

"Evidently, the royalty of Ardhigiza and a few others have the 'honor' of not vanishing into that ridiculous smoke upon death. They remain corporeal so as to take place in the honorary burning ceremony for their dead. Such was the case for Mansar. And would have been for Videl had you not intervened."

"But-"

Thea is interrupted by the banging of the door. Archer, Kyle, Bruce, and Natasha hurry through, all of their faces pale. Kyle stops short when he sees Thea lying there, and groans, "You have got to be kidding." He looks like he might throw up.

Archer, who is carrying the medical bag, is shaking his head, "Videl used uru knives."

Bruce is already pushing up his sleeves and looking at Thea with a professional eye, "Can't use ambrosia then, huh?"

"No," says Archer, but then takes out something from his pockets, "But this might help." In his hand is a large yellow flower that appears to be glittering, "Boil this in water and let her drink it. It should help with the pain. It's a rini flower."

"Rini?" Thea manages to whisper.

Archer nods and says, "Yes, my sister was named after it."

Something like a dawn of understanding flickers in Thea's eyes, "Oh..." she breathes, "Rini..."

It's a couple minutes later when Kyle discovers the word that had been etched into Thea's stomach. When he does so, he hisses, "F*ing son of a bitch, Loki, why didn't you kill him?"

"Because Thea asked me not to," replies Loki quietly.

"Yeah, where is he anyway?" asks Bruce, who is cleaning the bite wounds on Thea's neck as delicately as possible.

"He is being taken care of," says Archer without any emotion.

At one point, as Thea is drinking the melted-down rini flower, she hears a loud shouting match outside the room.

"I want to see her!" yells Jack in his British accent of rage.

"Not right now!" snaps Kyle, who has stepped out of the room temporarily, "She doesn't want or need ten million people hovering over her right now!"

"Why are you in there?!"

"I'm a doctor!"

"Okay, why are Natasha and Loki in there?"

"Because they are!"

"That's not an answer!"

"It's my answer, young man, and you're going to have to square with it!"

"I will not! I want to see Thea, and I want to see her right-"

There's a pause and then quieter talking and then someone opens the door and walks inside the room, which is met with further storms of protest from Jack.

Max closes the door behind him, a small smile of amusement on his face. He walks over to the bed, and when he sees Thea, his smile dissolves, "Oh Thea," he says, taking one of her hands- Natasha is currently holding the other one-as she lies there. That's all he manages to say, and expresses his emotion by leaning down and kissing Thea's forehead.

*

The next day, when Thea is still lying on the bed, and as the Ardhigiza sun is filtering through the window, and as she is resting under the blissful influence of the rini flower, and as Bruce sits there next to her, talking about his time as a doctor in Asia, the door opens and Archer walks inside.

"You wanted to speak with my brother?" asks Archer in a calm voice.

"What?" asks Bruce.

"Yes," says Thea. Her face is still blotched and beat up, and her body still impossibly weak from the blood loss- which is being helped by a blood bag Archer had grabbed- but she attempts to stay strong.

"Why?" asks Bruce.

"Because I want to," says Thea.

"Are you ever going to give me a straight answer?" asks Bruce fondly.

"No," says Thea, producing a chuckle from Bruce.

"You want to talk to him alone?" asks Archer.

Bruce speaks to quickly, Thea doesn't have time to even open her mouth, "Absolutely not. I'm putting my foot down on that one."

"I want to talk to him alone," insists Thea. "He won't hurt me."

"He won't hurt you?!" Bruce looks at her like she's crazy, "Do I actually need to remind you what he did to you?"

"Did," says Thea, "If I'm right, he won't hurt me ever again."

"What do you mean if you're right?" asks Bruce tiredly.

Thea doesn't answer, although she does cough.

"Fine," says Bruce, "I'm staying right outside the room though, and if I hear anything-"

"I'll be fine," says Thea, although her voice is trembling slightly.

Bruce, shaking his head, says, "They're going to kill me." When Thea winces, he adds quickly, "Sorry. Hyperbole wasn't in the right place, was it?"

Thea shrugs. Bruce reluctantly gets up and follows Archer, who nods in Thea's direction, out of the room.

A few seconds later, the door opens again and Videl walks through it. He looks no worse for wear from Loki's tortures, and is wearing a long white shirt and black pants. His golden curls are tussled, and his amber eyes alert. Thea originally cringes at the sight of him, but then takes a deep breath.

"You wanted to see me?" Videl asks in his lilting, accented drawl, "What for?"

"I just..." Thea stammers for a couple seconds, "I..."

Videl continues to look at her, crossing his arms.

She takes another deep breath, "When was Rini...when was Rini r-raped?"

Videl blinks, and it's obvious that he is startled by her question, "What?"

"When was Rini r-raped?"

Videl tilts his head, looking at her through narrowed eyes, "Who told you?"

"Nobody. You wouldn't. You wouldn't...you stopped..." Thea can't quite finish her sentence, but Videl gets her point.

"Yes. Rini was raped. On Earth, by a human man, who, I might add, quickly became my midnight snack." Thea winces, and Videl raises an amusing eyebrow, "She was too gentle to kill him when she could. That's all I wish to say about the matter."

"So you did care about her."

"You seem surprised. Do you not think I am capable of love?"

"No."

Videl snorts, "Well, you are wrong."

"Leeviah's dead, in case you were wondering," Thea doesn't look the slightest bit sorry.

Neither does Videl. "I didn't love her. She was a toy. Quite an attractive toy, but still a toy."

Pause.

"How'd you know...how'd you know that...I didn't...that I was..."

"You seem to have an alarmingly troubling time stringing together coherent sentences," says Videl smoothly, "Is it fear? Or is it the fact that I am so extraordinarily attractive?"

"Neither." Thea says shortly.

"I rather doubt it. Your question is obvioiusly asking me how, before I met you, I knew that you were timid around men and boys. The truth is that I didn't. When you first stumbled through that portal, I immediately recognized all of the symptoms that Rini demonstrated after the crime against her. Nervous twitching. Covering up yourself. Not looking me directly in the eye. I suppose I did use that against you, didn't I?"

"Yes," Thea says, loathing in her voice.

"Yet I stopped that mongrel wretch from trying to advance on you. It isn't because I care about you. It's because I saw the same fear and helplessness in your eyes as I saw in Rini's. Mark the difference." Videl sits down at her feet at the bed.

"I couldn't care less the difference," says Thea, trying to ignore his presence, "Did you know that I swore that I would kill you?"

Videl cocks his head, "No, but I strongly suspected it might be the case. This is partially why I knew you would be coming to the palace. You had a bit of revenge going for me, did you not? And continue to do so. Although I could say the same to you. You killed my father, after all. I killed your sister."

Thea looks angry, "No. I killed her."

Videl looks amused, "Perfect. Think like that. Less trouble for me."

Thea begins to cough, and reaches for the water glass on the bedside table, but can't quite reach it. She glances at Videl, raises an eyebrow, "I'm not getting it for you."

Thea's coughs turn raucous. Videl rolls his eyes, leans forward, and takes the glass from the table and hands it to her. She takes it and drinks, her eyes looking up from the surface with something like calculation.

Videl smirks, "I know that was a test. But I was too annoyed by your fake coughing to let the matter go."

Thea purses her lips. Then, she says, "One last thing. The blue or whatever color serum that Archer warned us about. That would kill me and everyone else. It wasn't real, was it?"

Videl presses his fist to his mouth in contemplation, "Now had did you manage to riddle that out?"

"I guessed. I'm good at guessing."

"So it would seem. You are correct. It was a fake. I am no more capable of concocting a lethal poison than I am of turning into a butterfly."
"Why'd you do it?"

"To get rid of Archer. I knew he loathed me. I knew what the deaths of our mother and Rini had done to him. It was easier this way. Plus, he'd no longer know of my whereabouts. Either way, the Pearl would be restored."

Thea glances at him, "You realize that I have a sword with an infused star hidden under my blanket next to me, right?"

"I knew it as soon as I walked into the room."

"I was going to kill you."

"I knew that as well."

"When did you know that I had changed my mind?"

"As soon as you started that ludicrous fake coughing."

"That's not all."

"No. It's also because you do not wish to take another life. Pathetic, if you ask me, but true. You already killed my father. You already killed your sister," Videl looks pleased when Thea's eyes turn distressed, "Why bother to take another? Such a waste of time, I know." Videl cocks his head, then adds, "You'll have to admit that to yourself one day. That you killed someone. Killed two people, including your precious little sister. I am fascinated on what downward spiral you will take."

Thea stares at him, not revealing any emotion.

Videl rolls his eyes, then stands up, "All right. If that's all you wanted, then I'm on my way. This conversation has been boring enough."

Before he walks out of the room, Thea calls out, "Thanks, Videl."

"For what?" He asks, turning around serenely.

"For making me realize that I am actually a monster."  

He smirks, then swoops into a low bow in her directions, "You are most sincerely welcome."

---------------

This was one of the most interesting conversations I've written, and I hope you all like it. Please VOTE and COMMENT what you think :) 

*In Professor Quirrell's voice* NEWSSS!!!! NEWS IN THE FANDOM!

IT'S OFFICIAL.

LOKI IS GONNA BE IN AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. 

I cannot deal. I was jumping up and down in my chair when I read about it. I just...argh. Like I'm super excited, but also really nervous because I'm not sure how the Loki I write is going to fit into Age of Ultron Loki, and if it's too different, I'm going to have to do magic and make if fit because that's how I work. I still have to think of something for the whole oh-Loki-is-dead-riiiight thing. If anyone has noticed, Odin is not making many appearances in Asgard scenes. Hint. Hint. You'll notice more of it in Ei Diafol. 

ANYWAY. HAVE A GREAT DAY. MUCH LOVE.