OKAY I HAVE ALL OF THE CLIPS AND SUCH READY FOR MAKING THE KIDNAPPED TRAILER, AND THEN OF COURSE, MY MOM HAD TO TAKE MY MAC COMPUTER AWAY FROM ME BECAUSE I APPARENTLY HAD AN ATTITUDE THAT I COULDN'T TAKE MY MAC TO SCHOOL TO WORK ON SAID TRAILER.

I AM GREATLY ANGERED. 

I MIGHT NOT GET IT BACK UNTIL LATE THIS WEEKEND. OR LATER.

I LITERALLY PLANNED OUT EVERYTHING AND GOT SO FREAKING EXCITED AND EVERYTHING AND----

UGH.

Sorry for the rant.

So, I took out my anger on this chapter. Which is very emotional. If you cry, I don't blame you. 

So. I won't post again until next week. My hopes and pleas are that the trailer will go up for the typical Saturday/Sunday post.

Do read, it will make me feel better, as will the ending author's note.

Lots of love, 

Sierra

Edit: Goes with ending author's note. You'll get an emotional edit next week.

Music: The Trial of Loki (Thor, the Dark World); tragedy (Christina Perri)

The next morning, before the sun even completely rises and after Thor leaves, a messenger hurries up to Loki.

"Sir, this is an urgent message from Midgard," says the messenger, bowing low, "I tried to give it to Thor, but he had left already."

Loki turns and snatches the parchment from the messenger's hands, and unravels it. The messenger watches as Loki's eyes dart across the page, narrowing more and more as he reads.

As Loki reaches the bottom and looks maddeningly worried, the messenger tentatively says, "Is everything all right, sir?"

Loki snarls, and throws the parchment down onto the ground and leaves the room before the messenger can say anything else.

*

Thor,

Take that dagger away from Thea, RIGHT NOW. I can't tell you exactly, but you need to know that it's dangerous for her to have it at the moment. The emerald one? Take it away, and I am so dead serious, it's not even funny. –Kyle

*

Loki walks into Thea's bedroom, only to find it empty. The bed is still in the same slightly wrinkled, but made, state that it had been in the night before, telling him clearly that Thea had either slept restlessly on the edge of the bed, or, more likely, on the floor.

He walks around the bed, just in case she is lying there, but, as he had predicted, she isn't there. He's about to walk away when he spots the bangles that Thea had worn last night on the ground, scarcely under the overhanging blanket. Kneeling down, he picks up one of the golden bands and turns it over in his hand.

Then, he drops it.

Blood.

Standing quickly, Loki looks wildly around the room. He spots Thea's backpack thrown clumsily on the ground and, hastening across the room, he furiously unzips it, but finds no signs of anything. His eyes fall on the small, needle-like sword leaning against the armoire, and he grabs it, pulling the blade out of its sheath.

Part of the side is tinted an ever so slight red.

Loki curses loudly and then throws the sword across the room with a resounding clang.

He bangs the bedroom door open and stalks through the hallways, calling some soldiers and guards as he does so. He is pragmatic enough to know that Thea will not be found by him unless she wants to be found, and since the palace is so large, he will need help.

"Find the girl, the mortal one," hisses Loki when he has several men- including Volstaag, around him, "And bring her to me at once!"

"Of course, my prince," A tall soldier bows.

"Is everything all right, Loki?" asks Volstaag loudly, "You seem concerned."

"No," growls Loki, "Everything is not all right. Now go! Find her!"

*

Thea is careful around the palace, sneaking in and out of the halls with scarcely a sound. She is keen to avoid the company of others, avoiding eye contact and shying away from the battalions of soldiers and guards that continuously make their rounds in the golden palace. She is so silent that the servants, in their whispered conversations throughout the day, begin to call her either "Midgard ghost" or simply, "ghost".

As she walks around one of the beautiful cloisters, breathing in the sweet smell of new flowers blooming in the trees, she sees two shadows falling on her. Turning quickly, she quails as she sees two soldiers standing in front of her.

 "You are to come with us," says the shorter of the guards. His leather-plaited armor is encircled with gold that sparkles in the sun. But he is large and his tone abrupt, which frightens Thea, and she stumbles back.

Before she can vocally protest, the guards seize her upper arms and pull her, struggling mightily, towards one of the upper rooms, signaled by the large, hovering charts suspended from the ceiling. Thea is pulling against the nonchalant soldiers so strongly, she doesn't notice who is in the room until she is too late.

Loki is standing in there, with Fandral and another man whom Thea does not recognize. When she raises her head, her eyes meet those of the Fallen Prince. With just that one look, with the cold steel in his green eyes, and with a pang of fear in her chest, she realizes that he knows. There could be no other explanation for the hardness in his voice as he says to the men still apprehending her, "Hold her for a bit more, until I am finished with my business."

But Thea does not want to wait for Loki to finish. She tears her arms from the two guards and, with shouts directed at her like bullets, she turns and flees. The girl nearly trips over her long skirts, but she pulls the hem up and continues to run, not caring where, as long as it is far away from the chart room. She races up the bright staircase, once again nearly falling, but regains her balance and dashes into the secluded corridor that is her bedchamber.

Panting, she hauls the heavy gold doors shut, then secures an iron candlestick through the handles. The child is frightened beyond normality, shaking terribly as she reaches for the emerald dagger hidden under the mattress.

BANG.

She turns and sees that the candlestick has been snapped in two as the doors are crashed open. Thea's heart catches in her throat as she sees Loki storm through the doorway, a furious expression on his face. With a strangled cry, she staggers backwards as Loki shuts the doors behind him with a dreadful finality.

For a moment, neither of them says anything, although Thea's face is awash with silent tears, and she is cowering behind the bed, clutching one of the four ivory posts. She has never seen Loki so incensed at her, the look on his face contorted in extraordinary fury.

"Come here."

Thea's lip trembles, but his tone is so dreadful, she is too terrified to disobey. Dragging her feet on the ground, she walks as if in a trance towards him, her face as white as a ghost's. When she reaches him, she doesn't look up, too scared to look into his enraged eyes once again.

"Give me the dagger."

With a start, she looks up at him and with a miraculous show of bravery, she manages one word, "But-"

"Give me the dagger."

Teeth chattering, the petrified Thea brings the dagger out from behind her back. Loki snatches it from her hand so quickly, she can hardly breathe. She can hardly breathe in the first place, from sheer terror.

"Show me your arms."

Thea staggers back, her eyes widening.

This time, Loki does not say his command again. Instead, he seizes one of her shaking wrists, ignoring her whimpers of pain, then yanks back her silken sleeve. As his eyes fall on the three long red marks on her shaking skin, his expression grows even angrier.

He lets her arm fall to her side, and for a moment, does not say anything. But when he raises his hand to sheath Thea's emerald dagger in his belt, she gasps and starts back, bringing her hands up to her face defensively.

Loki looks down her coldly, "I'm not going to hit you."

She glances up at him and then her eyes widen in fear as Loki pushes back his own sleeve. When he raises his silver dagger, she chokes in a soft whisper, "N-no!"

But he ignores her, and pushes her back roughly when she tries to grab his arm. Before she can do anything, he has made three long cuts just below his wrists, now glittering red in the light.

Thea begins to sob.

"I will give you a warning," hisses Loki over her wails, "If you so much as scratch your own skin again, I will cut myself even deeper. Do I make myself clear?"

Thea is still crying. Loki is clever. He hasn't threatened her directly, as she will not be affected by those. What he has done is struck her where she is the most volatile: hurting people she cares about. He knows perfectly well that he is wounding her by wounding himself more terribly than if he had locked her up or even slapped her.

Putting a first to her mouth to try to stop her cries, Thea reaches forward with trembling fingers to Loki's arm. He pushes her back again, further striking her heart by resisting her. When she looks up at him tremulously, his eyes are not kind.

"Go and get me your sword." When she hesitates, he growls, "This. Instant."

The sword is snatched from her hands much like the dagger had been. Thea is still shaking, although her tears have slowed.

"Do not ever let me catch you doing that again," says Loki in an awful voice. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-y-es," stammers Thea.

He looks down at her, his lip curled, "Someone will come for you for dinner. Do not leave this room until then or after."

The door bangs behind him, and Thea crumbles onto the bed, finally giving way to sobs of misery, pain, and regret.

*

Kyle, oh Kyle. So this was the piece of information you so desired to hide from me before sending Thea to Asgard. The fact that the child, having nothing else to turn to, turns to punishing her own skin for the crimes she feels in her heart. Why I was forced to discover this on my own, I blame not on your idiotic fancies of trust but of your knowledge that she fears my anger. But you would do well to recall that while she is wise to fear my anger, I have no intentions of harming the girl. Thea will remain here until my brother and I see fit. See to it that she has no more reminders of Midgard. I have enough to worry about as it is.

*

Thea does not show up to dinner. When Thor apprehends a servant girl to explain this, she merely says, "The mortal girl was asleep. I did not think it best to wake her from her slumber. She seems exhausted, that poor thing."

Thor sends her away, then sits down between Loki and Sif at the long wooden table, alit by candles. Odin, like so often now, has not joined them for meals. As Thor stares beyond the dining room, he notices that Loki does not look surprised at all that Thea is not present. But Thor's brother is also rigid with uncontrolled anger; his green eyes are drawn and his lips pressed together in a firm line. Thor has a desire to ask why, but refrains and begins a spirited conversation with Fandral about one of the broken down spaceships near the armory. As for Loki, he remains silent during the meal.

After the sun sets, after everyone has eaten, and after the candles are lit in the corridors, Loki makes his way down a darkened hallway. The marks on his arms are tingling not from pain, for Loki does not sense pain readily, but from the sheer recognition of their presence, and what their existence proves. He knows perfectly well that Thea is not asleep, but still has no desire to enter her room at the moment.

He finds a balcony overlooking the great city and looks over the edge. The city is sparkling with lights from the buildings below him, and the setting sun's dying rays. Beyond the water, the Rainbow Bridge spans to the Bifrost, its golden walls beginning to twinkle like the stars that are poking out from the sky. A flock of birds flies across the sky, as the creatures dive down to the trees, eager for sleep. The air is cool as the winter begins to fall over Asgard, and the wind is brisk.

Loki senses movement behind him, but says nothing as Thor too leans on the stone balcony. Both of their capes blow in the wind, snapping and swirling, the only sound during the brothers' silence.

Thor breaks this hesitation by saying, "Brother, your silence is more telling than anything you could attempt to mask your emotions. In that way, you and Thea are similar."

"Is that so?" asks Loki dryly, "I am only silent when I wish not to divulge information. As for Thea, see now what she has been up to." He slides his sleeve off, baring his arm so that the red marks are visible to Thor.

"What did you do, Loki?" Thor asks tiredly.

"What?" asks Loki. Then, he realizes that Thor thinks that it was Thea who cut his arm and says quickly, "Thea did this to her own skin. I did this to myself to punish her."

Thor is stone silent, and Loki sees the pain in his brother's eyes as his mind plays out what Loki has just told him. Then, Thor says in a low voice, "Is this why she is in Asgard?"

"Perhaps," says Loki, pushing his sleeve down and looking back to the city below them, "If the child has poisoned her thoughts so much, Kyle and Max may have thought that only a change in atmosphere could heal her broken soul."

"And how is that going?" asks Thor darkly, "I see no positive change in her. In fact, she is even more silent than usual. She moves like a shadow in the palace, and her eyes are drawn with such pain, she looks as if she is constantly being tortured. She is torturing herself, Loki. Now, that fact is now even clearer."

"Indeed," says Loki coolly, "And what would you have me- what would you have us- do? Thea does not want help."

"Yes, brother, she does," says Thor. "I can see it as plainly as I hold Mjolnir in my hand. She craves comfort. Her entire family is vanquished, each member disappearing before her eyes like some sort of twisted nightmare. The servants and guards claim that they can hear her screaming at night like one possessed. Yet I have seen you do nothing for her, and I suspect by those marks on your arm that your reaction to her secret was not one of kindness or support."

"It is because she is being idiotic. She did not kill Leah. Videl did. I can do nothing for her until she realizes this for herself. Thea must learn to accept these things for the way they are instead of for the way they are not. She has turned away from me, from you, from everyone, since the day her sister was murdered."

"No Loki," says Thor, "You do not help her because you are afraid."

Loki looks rather affronted, "What did you say?"

"You are afraid of how protective you are of her. You are afraid of the love you feel for the child, the orphan girl you first ignored, then goaded, then scorned. And then you realized that you could not feel any different than if she were your own daughter. But your antihero nature will only last for so long, Loki. Soon, you will once again take the path of darkness. This, we both know. And so you are afraid."

Judging by the way Loki's jaw is clenched, he is angry, but he says in an eerily calm voice, "For all your brawn and your dim-wittedness, brother, you have surely been working on this falsified, fantastical theory for quite some time. For example, how do you know that I have not already taken this, as you call it, this 'path of darkness'?"

Thor is quiet as he speaks, "I do not."

Now Loki is silent. For a few minutes, the two brothers stand together, each with their own ideals, each with their own ambitions, each with their own troubles. Finally, Thor turns and leaves, his red cape flying out behind him in the still-constant breeze, leaving his younger brother to his solitary thoughts.

*

When Loki enters the darkened bedroom, he finds that now, Thea is truly asleep, sprawled halfway on the settee near the window, halfway on the ground. The only light comes from the silver shafts from the moon filtering through the curtained windows. The child is wearing a white nightdress, which is too large for her skinny frame, but makes her look like some sort of broken little angel nonetheless, with her tangled blond hair covering her shoulders. Her face is contorted by faded tears and hidden pain, but for the moment, she is quiet, save for the occasional whimpers that pass through her lips.

Loki walks forward, silent as a cat, stepping quietly in his leather boots, and then crouches down so that his face is level with hers. Closing his eyes, he sighs. Then, he lifts her up, cradling her small body in his arms. For a moment, he just holds her like this, looking down into her soft, young, and miserable face. Subconsciously, she moves her head so that it is leaning against his chest, and her misery begins to lift.

But she does not move as he steps over to the bed and lies her down gently on the soft mattress, or when he moves the covers up right below her chin. Loki sits down on the mattress, at her feet, then moves some of her hair from her face. She stirs slightly, but does not wake.

Images swirl through his head. Of Thea remaining in Asgard as his own daughter. Of her riding over the hills on a chestnut horse as spaceships soar over her head, as the Bifrost swirls in the distance. Her hair swirls in the wind freely, and she is laughing. She is happy. She is forgetting her wretched past and moving on.

But then darkness penetrates his thoughts. He clearly sees himself turning villainous again, giving in to the seduction of power and of a throne more readily than giving in to any ploys of a woman. He sees fire, he sees swords, he sees Asgard crumbling. He sees himself once again sitting on the golden throne, his scepter in his hands and a triumphant smirk on his face. He wants this more than anything. But does he want this more than protecting this child at his side? For he know that he cannot have both. He must choose. Perhaps not now, but eventually, the choice must be made.

 Loki reaches forward and kisses Thea's forehead softly. Wiping a single tear from her closed lids with his thumb, he stands up. Without looking back, he walks out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

*cries*

So I have a photo on the side... look at the picture and then please tell me about what you think about Kidnapped, because I have literally never been so excited about a story in my life. The plot twists! The emotion! The characters! AHHHH

So. If you want to comment beyond commenting about the chapter (which would be great, 'cause I need to know what I'm doing right and wrong), here are some questions... which would be great because I need to be put in a better mood because I am so aggravated right now and angered ugh. 

1) Who's being kidnapped...

2)...and by whom?

3) Who is the villian in Kidnapped?

Hint: (or maybe I'm trying to trick you, you'll never know whahahahahhaaha) You're probably wrong.

#Havealittlefaith

Plus, I need to feel better. 

Thank you so much. You guys mean everything to me. No exaggeration.

Sierra <3