Hello all!!! 

I'm actually splitting the last chapter up into two smaller chapters. That's why this one isn't very long, but I'm updating again today, so you'll get to read it soon enough! 

There will be an epilogue too, and I might or might not post it today. :) 

Enjoy!

~Music~

Bloodstream (Ed Sheeran)

Hey Soul Sister (train)

The Train (The Hunger Games soundtrack)

Part Nineteen

~Thea's POV~

That night, Thea packs her belongings. She's leaving Asgard tomorrow.

She had brought so few things that they all fit in her tattered rucksack, with the notable exception of her slender sword and the invisibility cloak. The difference between her sword and  cloak right now is that she is actually in possession of her sword. Loki still has her invisibility cloak.

Loki is also the reason that her hands are shaking as she zips her rucksack. As she does so, she sees the alder marks on her wrists, still very strong. They haven't faded at all, and she wonders if they are slightly more permanent than Loki had told her. She glares at them. She wants to rub them off as quickly as possible.

She hasn't seen Loki since that morning. She had been avoiding him at all costs, and he had let her. Thea is still shaking from the revelation of earlier that day. She doesn't know if she wants to believe it. She doesn't know if she'll ever believe it.

But the one thing she knows for sure, deep in her heart, is that she is Loki's daughter.

As she leans against her trunk, she begins to cry quietly, the golden necklace brushing the trunk as she does so. She doesn't know why exactly. But she knows for sure that the past few weeks have been emotional, shocking, and revealing. She's still missing her family, especially her sister. She's still getting over the shock of yesterday.

Videl had been right. She can't trust anyone.

From beside her, Klaka whines and licks her salty face. Thea smiles a little and sniffs, trying to stop her tears.

A rattle comes from the small Juliet balcony behind her bed. She looks up and sees, hidden slightly by the long white curtain, the ghostly shape of Wairua sitting on the iron rail. Thea wipes her face and looks at the bird. Wairua looks right back at her.

Klaka pricks his ears up and looks towards the door. Thea knows what that means, so she leaps up, drawing the curtains so that Wairua is hidden. The owl gives an offended hoot and then flies out of sight, towards the dying sun.

She whirls around just as the door knocks. She sighs in relief. Loki doesn't usually knock.

She opens the door and sees Lady Sif standing in front of her. The warrior woman is as impeccably looking as usual, her long black hair tied up in a ponytail, and her armor sparkling in the light, "You are leaving tomorrow, are you not?"

"Yeah," says Thea, wondering what Sif's point is.

Sif nods, standing upright as Klaka jumps up on her legs. "Well I wish to tell you that you are a strong young woman. Not many could have beaten Saissa. You fought bravely, and with great skill. Although, of course, we are all probably wondering where you got your magical talents."

A wave of realization hits her. Loki's spell is in effect. Nobody remembers his actions of the past year. They all think he is dead.

Thea tries to look as chipper as possible, and she fingers her now-blonde hair, "Don't we all?"

Sif nods, a small smile escaping from her pressed, "Asgard will miss you, Theodora."

Thea really wishes that she wouldn't call her that. The only people who really did are Max, when he was angry, and, of course, Loki.

"Yeah," says Thea, "I'll miss you too, Sif."

This isn't completely true, but it's better than Thea saying that she will miss Asgard.

Sif nods again, then clears her throat. "Well regardless, I carry a message from the All-Father."

Thea jerks her head up.

"He requests your presence in the throne room immediately," continues Sif, looking at her as if to ask what she could have possibly done wrong to merit this occasion.

"Tell Odin," Thea tries to put as much disgust as possible in two syllables, "That if he wants to see me, he can come here himself."

Sif looks shocked, "You could not possibly be thinking of refusing an audience with the king-"

"He's your king," says Thea, "And I'm really sorry for it. But he's not my king."

Sif stares at this belligerent child, but then collects herself, "Very well. I will carry your message, although I wish you luck for its consequences."

As soon as Sif leaves, Thea leaps up. Klaka runs around in circles in excitement as Thea grabs her dagger from the dresser. As she does so, she realizes that it is no longer emerald-crusted. It has rubies strung over the handle and is now a more bright silver. Of course. Loki's dagger is too recognizable.

Thea sheaths the dagger in her belt and then hurries to the door. She opens it and then leaps back in shock as "Odin" walks through.

The All-Father closes the door behind him, and Thea crouches down against the bed, pulling Klaka close to her as the guise falls away in a shimmer of mist and her father stands in front of her.

"I was waiting out in the hall," says Loki, answering her silent question, "I had a feeling that you would answer the way you did to Sif."

Loki snaps his fingers, and Thea feels the familiar coolness on her head. She glances to the tendrils of hair at her face; they're now black.

"This isn't going to stay like this forever, is it?" says Thea in a dull voice. She already knows the answer.

"Of course not," says Loki, "That would be conspicuous, would it not be? And besides, maybe Jack only likes blonde haired girls."

"Don't talk about Jack when you just threatened to kill him," snaps Thea, "You don't get to do that anymore."

A half-smile comes over Loki's face, "You've changed, kitten."

"Don't call me that."

"Ah, resistance. I should have known."

"You threatened to kill my family. I'm not in the mood for you to treat me like a little kid anymore."

"Your family," says Loki, crouching down next to her- Thea tries not to pull back, and Klaka, naive Klaka, tries to lick Loki's face, "Is with me."

"No," says Thea, pushing him, "It's not. You're the one who kept telling me that I have a family down on earth. And I do. I realize that now. And I don't want you getting in my way."

If Thea had hoped to pain Loki, she had either failed or Loki just shows no signs of his emotions, "Very well," he says, "If you want our relationship to be this way, then so it shall."

There is something in his tone that Thea distinctly does not like.

He rests his hand on her head briefly, and Thea feels her hair turn blonde again. "As for this," he touches the golden band with a finger, and Thea looks down to see it shimmer, "This will be invisible to everyone but those who know of the spell. You and me and the sorceress witch."

Thea doesn't glance towards the window, but she wants to. Loki is wrong, or at least purposefully misinformed. There is one other person who knows about the spell.

But Thea doesn't say a word.

"Be appreciative that I'm not going to break Klaka's neck," says Loki, "I could, but I'm not going to."

"I'm so thankful," says Thea sarcastically. She immediately wishes that she hadn't said anything.

"The journal is still on Midgard," continues Loki in a flat voice, ignoring her, "I expect you to use it."

"I expect you to know that I won't," says Thea in a mocking voice.

Loki narrows his eyes at her. Thea narrows her eyes right back.

Klaka, evidently finally sensing Thea's tenseness, cuddles up against her and snarls at Loki softly, the first sign of anger he has ever had towards the Asgardian.

Loki ignores this. He stands up, looking down at Thea with absolute disdain, "I expect that you will keep our end of the bargain, or your little family will be buried right next to your sister."

Thea clenches her jaw but doesn't say anything.

He sweeps past her, "Keep your mouth shut, Theodora. I have nothing more to say to you."

Her bedroom door slams. Thea's lip trembles, and then she can't help it. She sinks to the floor and begins to sob.

*

The next morning, Thea is exhausted. She had barely slept, not from nightmares, but from tossing and turning so much. When the sun finally begins to peak over the east, Thea drags herself out of bed, her head throbbing from lack of sleep. Her eyes are burning.

Klaka yawns and stretches, then jumps down next to her, nuzzling her ankle. Thea reaches down to scratch the top of his head, and the puppy wags his tail.

"I can't believe any of this," Thea whispers, and Klaka licks her face, "I can't...I just...I don't know what to do, Klaka."

Klaka rolls over, and Thea rubs his belly.

Sighing, she stands up a couple minutes later and looks towards the balcony, where the sun is beginning to shine brighter. She glances towards the door, which she had locked last night.

Then, she runs over to the desk and pulls out a piece of paper. Digging through her packed rucksack, she pulls out a pen.

Not even stopping to think about what she is doing, she scribbles down four words onto the paper, four words she never thought she would write.

You were right. Help.

Still glancing at the door, still on edge, Thea hurries to the balcony. She looks around, careful to stay in the shadows. When she sees nothing, she whispers, "Wairua?"

The giant bird appears from seemingly out of nowhere, alighting on the balcony. Thea walks back into her room quickly, and, hooting quietly, Wairua soars in after her.

"Sh, Klaka, sh!" Thea hisses as her half-wolf begins to bark at the sight of the owl. "Please, shh!"

Klaka runs over to her bed and contents himself with chewing on the wood.

Thea turns to Wairua and whispers, "Can you give this to Videl?" She holds out the rolled up piece of paper.

Wairua stares at her with his amber eyes and then hoots. He leans forward, his beak half-open. Thea lets him take the paper, and then watches as Wairua flaps his huge wings and then flies out of her window. He vanishes minutes later.

*

"I'm sure you are very excited to return to Midgard," says Thor an hour later. She and Thor are eating in a private dining room. although Thea has barely touched her food, mostly from nerves. Any second, she is expecting Loki to come storming to her with a dead bird in his hand. She has a feeling she just sent Wairua off to his feathery death.

"Yeah," she says, "I am."

This is completely true, but Thea is only half thinking about that.

"You should know" muses Thor as he eats a particularly large piece of some sort of game meat, "That you remind me of someone. Someone I used to know and that I loved very deeply."

Thea feels shivers.

"Really?" she asks dryly. 

"Indeed," says Thor, "I can see him in your eyes. It's the strangest thing, is it not?"

"Remarkably strange," says Thea, anger flowing through her.

After breakfast, Thor wastes no time in taking Thea to the Bifrost, knowing she is eager to be off. Thea, carrying her rucksack on her back walks with Klaka trotting right behind her. As Thor and Heimdall talk quietly, Thea turns to look out of the great golden globe, back towards the city.

She hadn't expected Loki to come see her before she left, but she feels a little pang of regret anyway. She had hurt him, she knows that. But he had hurt her too.

And both of them are stubborn.

Thor gestures to her, knocking thoughts out of her head. She looks back at Asgard one last time and then turns to Thor.

She doesn't look back.

*

Jack is extremely talented at pretending that he is paying attention in class when he's really miles away. And because he's an exemplary student, he can get away with this.

So as he sits in Algebra II, and as his teacher is sketching out multiple triangles of different sizes on the board complete with trigonometric functions, his thoughts are far from sine and cosine. His thoughts are on the same thing that has occupied his brain for the entire boring, lonely month.

Thea.

Jack has plenty of friends at school; being British immediately made him a subject of interest as did his charismatic personality. The fact that his voice had deepened and he was growing out of gangly self helped too. But these friends are simply surface friends. There is nobody else that has shared the same things he has shared as Thea had.

As he sits there, twirling his pencil and cocking his head in pretended interest, Jack finds himself thinking not just about his friendship with Thea. He's thinking about everything about her. Her hair, her eyes, the way her face lights up when she laughs, the way she crosses her arms and scowls, the way she sasses people often more times than even does, the way she fights like some sort of warrior, the way she makes people like her even when she's being cranky, the way her mouth curls up when she's trying not to smile when someone's teasing her, the way-"

"Jack?"

He jerks up his head as Ms. Shin, a tiny woman with straight black hair, looks at him with traces of amusement. "Do you know how we find the angle of interest? We're trying to find the length of the ladder, if you don't recall."

The class laughs quietly. Jack's buddy, Davis, grins at him from across the room.

She doesn't think he's been paying attention. Which is true. What Ms. Shin doesn't know, however, is that he has been raised by spies and superheroes. Jack is generally one step ahead of everyone else.

"Subtract the sum of the two angles from 180," he says lazily, "And then use the proportion with tangent. In case you're curious, the ladder should be around 20.45 feet, give or take."

The class laughs again. Ms. Shin can't help but smile. "Very well done, Mr. Barton. If you would come up to the board and write out how you did that, I would appreciate it."

Jack is about finished drawing out the problem (complete with individual rungs on the ladder and a man flailing on said ladder) when the principal walks inside the room. "I need Mr. Barton, please."

Jack glances at the principal with only half-interest. Either Barney or Clint usually takes him out of school for random reasons about once or twice a week. He grabs his backpack and follows the principal out the door.

Today's ride is Clint. He is dressed in jeans and a white Fleetwood Mac t-shirt and holding a cup of Starbucks in his hand, the sort of ensemble that he usually wears when he's going into civilian territory.

"What is it today, Clint?" asks Jack cheerfully. He had never really called Clint "uncle". "Fighting techniques? New attack in Tasmania? Tony getting stuck in some sort of mental robotic claw?"

Clint raises an eyebrow, but Jack can see the trace of a smile, "Nope, none of those things. I think you'll like this better."

"Better than Tony getting stuck in a robotic claw?" asks Jack as the two walk towards the parking lot, "I doubt it."

"I'll bet you five bucks," says Clint.

Jack snorts, "Done."

At Stark Tower, Clint leads Jack up to the dining hall level, which is right below the levels for fighting practice and recreation.

"Oh sweet, what's for lunch?" asks Jack as the elevator opens to the dining hall, which is a large room surrounded by steel columns, huge windows, and of course, the smell of heavenly food. "I mean, the school's food isn't terrible, but honestly, if you have to compare their roast beef with Tony's, it's actually...bloody HELL."

Jack stares. There are five people in the room, standing near a table next to one of the giant windows. One is Tony. One is Pepper. One is Bruce. One is Peter.

The other is Thea.

Then, Jack is running forward, and so is Thea, and the two grab each other so tightly, they both fall to the ground, laughing. Jack is hyper aware of his hands on her arm and around her waist, but he doesn't care, and neither does she. They just hold each other, both still laughing and not wanting to let go.

"You get your bloody five bucks, Clint," says Jack between gasps of laughter.

Hope you like it! :D Please VOTE and COMMENT! I'll probably have the last chapter up later today! (fingers crossed)

Love,

Sierra xx