Preposterous

Bitter.

Bitter with a hint of rotten egg… It was revolting. Whatever was getting into her mouth was some of the foulest tasting stuff she'd ever known. She tried to push it away from her mouth but to flow of putrid liquid would not stop. Instead, she tried to turn her face away but something strong and unyielding kept her firmly in place.

"Silly woman, you need to take it all," a deep baritone admonished her.

Despite how heavy her eyelids felt, she did her best to open them. Mostly darkness met her unfocused eyes.

Mostly darkness… She should be dead!

Now she didn't just gently try to bat away force-feeding hands or turn her head away. Now she struggled. Instinctively, Leticia's hands shot to the back of her neck to inspect the damage that must be there. Her fingertips met nothing but smooth flesh.

"Leti, stop." She barely heard the command and still refused to acknowledge its owner. Again, she tried to sit up but what she now recognized as strong arms kept her in place. The next, nearly shouted words were accompanied by a firm shake. "Cease this ridiculous struggle, woman!"

At least the now empty cup of vile liquid was gone.

"What's going on? Am I dead?"

"Don't be stupid."

"Loki? But I, what's… I don't understand." He finally allowed her hands to touch her face as she furiously rubbed at her dry eyes.

"Forgive me for not informing you before it happened but there was not time and while I don't doubt your acting skills, I doubt you could have pulled off quite the realistic performance that appeased those that wished to see you dead."

"The execution, it wasn't real?" Pulling her hands from her eyes, she could finally see the man that held her but it wasn't Loki. This man had green eyes and pale, smooth skin. Only the voice and deep, black hair were the same. This was the man she'd seen briefly outside Loki's prison, the man that had saved her from rape. She knew they were one in the same but the difference from what she was familiar with was rather jarring.

"Oh, it was real to the entire realm of Asgard save four. By now your body has been incinerated and your ashes released to the great sea."

"I… By now? How long have I been asleep?" She again tried to sit up but again; he kept her where she lay.

"Two days. Please do stop moving about so much. You'll simply make yourself sick."

She ignored his cautions to remain still, her voice begging. "Would you stop handing this out piece meal and please just explain to me exactly what, in the nine realms, has happened?" She wasn't sure if it was her pleading words or the tears that were now trailing down her cheeks but he finally took pity on her. He promised to tell her everything as long as she promised to remain still during the retelling. Though it felt odd to be held by him, she ceased her feeble struggles.

He told her of Thor's surprise visit to his tower cell and the news he'd relayed, how he'd then helped in braking Loki out of his prison though he refused to name his third accomplice. He told her of how they replaced both her escorts and the executioner and how everything the crowd saw was nothing more than an illusion. He explained that they temporarily incapacitated her with a poison that was working its way out of her system as he recounted the tale.

"And what of Aala?" She asked once he'd gone silent.

He sighed before answering. "She believes as the rest of Asgard."

She said nothing to that. Aala thought her dead?

"You know that letting her believe anything else would only be a detriment to her safety."

Leticia nodded and closed her eyes against the onslaught of pain that spread through her chest and settled in her gut. She felt a cool hand wiping away the tears that spilled from her eyes.

"Where are we?" she asked in an attempt to distract herself from the thought of never seeing her sister again.

"Deep within the Border Mountains. We will only remain here long enough until I can manage to take us further."

"So he let you go?" She opened her eyes and looked up at this strange, pale Loki.

He seemed to hold his breath for a moment before he answered, looking far beyond the wall of moonlit trees that surrounded them.

"He seemed to find the idea of your execution rather unjust and since he's become the proud protector of justice of late, it seems he felt compelled to intervene."

She didn't mean to laugh but the sound just escaped her so suddenly. It earned her a sharp look. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she hesitantly reached up to touch this unfamiliar, yet familiar face. He drew back a fraction of an inch just before her fingers touched him but she didn't relent. She would place the blame squarely on cheating death and the odd feeling of invincibility such a feat bestows on a person. She let her fingers trace over where his marking should have been. "But you must know that he didn't do it for me, no matter the injustice of my situation."

His eyes left hers but he didn't remove himself from her touch. He said nothing in return, instead deflecting to another topic entirely. She hadn't even noticed him move until she felt the cup at her lips and the moment was broken.

"Please, no more of that awful stuff."

"This is different. It will make you sleep, allowing the elixir to fully remove the poison from your system."

Though hesitant, she obediently sipped the cloyingly sweet liquid down, nearly gagging at its viscous nature. It acted quickly. Within seconds, she felt her already weak body slackening, her eyelids dropping of their own accord. She could feel her mind slipping into a dreamless sleep but something suddenly and irrationally became important for him to know.

"I miss the other you."

XxXxX

He just stared at her for so long that it wasn't until the light began to warm the morning sky that he even realized his mouth had been agape the entire time. Closing his mouth and trying to wet the now dry orifice, he gently lay her down on the bed roll. He walked a few paces away before he turned his head to regard her incredulously once more. Instead of continuing to try to come up with some sort of workable plan for the two of them, he instead focused on what should have been trivial. But it didn't feel trivial in the least. It felt monumental.

"Miss the other me?" he whispered to her unhearing ears. He turned fully back to face her, his face twisted in a disbelieving mask. "You prefer the other…" he didn't even know what to call himself. The other 'version' of himself? The monster? She liked marred, blue Jotun flesh to healthy, benign Asgardian tones? She preferred aberrant red eyes, the eyes of a beast to the one feature that many courtiers had told him was his best?

Preposterous.

Insane.

Madness!

It must have been a drugged utterance of a woman who hadn't been fully in control of her mind and mouth for a time. He looked down at his pale hand, tinted pink by the brilliance of the Asgardian sunrise as the rays of the sun reflected brightly off the Eastern clouds. These were the hands he'd known, believed to be the truth, for over a thousand years and she had the audacity to name the other as a preference. Peering over at her once again, he narrowed his eyes, still in firm disbelief before he looked to his hands a second time.

He concentrated then, on that tickle of magic he'd never even noticed before that fateful day on Jotunheim. He pulled at the pearls of magic that concealed his true nature and watched with disgust as the disguise slipped away, revealing his true form beneath. For the first time in his life, he really looked at it. Never before today had he done anything more than give his hands a cursory glance, unable to even study himself. But now, here, after her unbelievable words, he looked, really looked.

Cobalt was too deep a color to describe them; they more resembled the shade of a cloudless twilight sky. The flesh itself was just as smooth with the exception of the odd markings that were patterned in various places. Upon closer inspection, he found the raised skin was a shade lighter than the rest, giving it the impression of standing out much farther than it truly did. He touched one on his wrist and pressed, harder than a vein but softer than a tendon. The sensation was entirely different from when she'd do such a thing. When he did it, it was no more than any other touch. When she did it… He'd never even told her how much pleasure those caresses could cause, with the obvious exception of his cock. With that one, he'd been unable and unwilling to keep silent.

A sniffling sound drew his attention back to her and he let Odin's magic wrap itself around him once more, returning his looks to that of an Aesir. He saw her hand unconsciously rubbing at her little upturned nose. For now, he decided to end his internal musings about her final drug induced words. When she woke, she would be both thirsty and hungry. He sat next to her and drew two daggers. Closing his eyes, he summoned two replicas to scout out into the surrounding woods. It was time to brush off some old skills and do some hunting.

XxXxX

AN: I'm sorry for the short length. I've found that the words for this story don't quite flow out as quickly as they once did. I still enjoy writing it just as much but find myself stopping every few hundred words or so and have to really think about what I'm going to type next, sometimes leaving the computer all together for a bit. It's frustrating, so instead of waiting for a week for a descent length chapter, I'm going to give you this small one now. Also, for anyone else that was a bit confused about my description of the actual execution, please read my response to ClaMiAl. I hope you enjoyed it despite the length.

Female'wraith: Will they? Tehehehe
whatcatydidnext: Thank you, thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it and no, it's not quite the end. In fact, I have no idea exactly when the end will come. Unlike POM, this was not mapped well in advance (though POM was only mapped from chap 25 on).
Yasumi: Aww, I'm still making people cry? Awesome. :) Still more and it's awesome to hear that it's still flowing for the readers even if the writer feels a bit off.
Ithil Aerlinn: Not over yet! It's awesome that you're still enjoying it.
Poodle warriors: It's definitely a chance for something new. Now, will the freedom be good for their relationship or bad? Hmmmm. Thank you, though I didn't seem to make it as clear as I'd hoped, lol.
Anon E Mouse: Woot, another vote for passable action sequencing. I hinted at her sister here but, since she's so important to Leti, you can be sure that it wasn't the last mention of her. I'm looking forward to smut too. I wanted some in this chap but it just didn't happen. Maybe the next one… keep your fingers crossed, lol.
DoctorLokiLove: Nope, not the last one. I have a few ideas to iron out before I wrap this guy up. I doubt it will be anywhere near the length of POM. I don't have the plethora of ideas for this one like I did with the last one, nothing so grand. I'm pleased you're enjoying it!
Hr'awkryn: Glorious? So sweet of you to think so. Needs more smut! My ratio isn't quite 50/50 anymore.
ClaMiAl: They're off! And you nailed it with, "to who knows where". I hope I did Leti's 'OMG I'm not dead' scene justice. Now, for the execution explanation: I wanted to stay away from a beheading so I decided I'd go more for the 'clean' death. This is where a sword, usually a short sword if you're going by history, is placed at the back of the neck right where the neck and shoulders converge. The tip is placed against the flesh and then the executioner thrust downward, effectively sheathing the sword into the spine and chest cavity of the victim. This does three things if the angle is right, severs the spinal cord and slices into both the heart and one of the lungs. This ensures that the victim dies almost instantaneously with a minimum of carnage to the body, hence the 'clean' in clean death. The collar (something I pulled purely out of my dark imagination) was really just meant as a guide so that even an inexperienced executioner would place the blade at the proper spot and deliver the thrust at the proper angle. I think I over thought it and then under described it, leaving you guys scratching your heads. I hope that clears it up.
Candy flaps: Woot! And now she's seen him but unlike the saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt," she's more in line with psychology that finds familiarity or often than not breeds fondness.