//------------------------------// // For Now I'm Still Breathing // Story: We Remember Everything // by Thunderscourge //------------------------------// A/N: Special thanks to Evilhumour, Ketvirtas, Mutie Genic, gakuseiakira, Killabyte, KillerCookie123, New Spark, Drgnwolf, and Wintermoon for your comments last chapter! It is great comments like those that keep me writing! Thank you again, and I hope to continue hearing from you all! Chapter title now brought to you by Living Illusion's "Papertrails" I'd love to hear what you have to think afterwards in the comments, and remember, comments are ! Loki’s assailant felt her blade pass through the space where her opponent should be. Should be. Her ring shaped blade sailed through the foggy air and made no contact with any flesh. The blades she had unleashed on her target had disappeared along with the man himself, so the assault had not been in complete vain. The fogs concealed where Loki had teleported off to, though the fact that he now had blades penetrating his body brought comfort to the assassin. She was quite sure that he would not be fighting for long with wounds as grievous as those, and so she relaxed for a second’s rest. That same moment was met with excruciating pain as the woman suddenly became a conduit for a burst of electrical magic. She tore her body away from the stream of magic and pivoted on her foot to send more blades in the direction the attack had come from. They flew through the fog and disappeared from sight, though no noise of them striking anything came. The scorned woman snarled as she realized that her fight might not be as over as she believed. The fact that he had attacked her with such strength surprised her, not that she was unfamiliar to humans using magic. After all, she had stepped in during a fight between them (among other races) and the Betrayer to finally defeat the person she despised the most in the world. From a point to the side of the woman Loki’s voice called out to her. It was not panicked or worried which caused her blood to boil. He sounded as if he was in control, not her, and that was simply unacceptable. “I will admit you almost had me there, but I am not going to test Lady Death’s hospitality. Would she let me die? I know not,” his voice shifter positions just as the woman began to rush at him, his body obviously teleporting from place to place as he spoke in a most casual tone, “I have a feeling not, but this is not a matter than should be tested through trial and error.” Due to her own teleportation technique being exhausting, the assassin smirked to herself underneath her helmet. The fool was pointlessly wasting precious energy to monologue. Still, that did not mean he was not damn annoying. “You are only digging yourself a deeper grave, human.” Loki scoffs at her as he teleports once more, this time avoiding a volley of magical blades sent his way, “I think I should clue you in on the fact that I am no mere human. A bullet cannot pierce my skin, a hundred years is a fragment of my lifespan, and I possess magic they never could.” With his voice to pinpoint his location, the woman teleported in the relative direction and took a strong swipe with her ring blade at her foe, “Whatever you are, it matters not! You will be slain all the same!” The blade made contact and slashed straight through Loki’s body...though it did so far more quickly than it should have. The Loki standing there smiled at her before taking a hand down to the place where no wound appeared, its body not separating in two as it would have if it had truly been him. “I am not so sure,” Loki’s voice taunted from it as well as a few other places in the nearby area. The would-be assassin growled out as she realized that this was just some of his trickery. She had sensed little magic coming from him when she moved to attack. Where was this energy coming from? Loki continued to taunt her in a most jovial fashion, his illusion before her giving a cheeky smile before dusting the place she would have hit him, “You see, not once but twice now I have felt a surge of magic in these lands when I need it most. You are in no winning position.” To punctuate his point, another bolt of electricity shot out towards her. The assassin narrowly avoided the attack only to find herself dodging into the outstretched blade of yet another Loki. Not knowing if it was false or not, she twisted her body around it in a small arc. This ended with her catching a sharpened blade of ice to a soft part of her front armor. Her own momentum caused it to do more damage than it otherwise might have, and Loki used the second on her being stunned to channel electricity through his blade and into her open wound. To her credit she did not howl in pain, instead using the moment to instead try and strike Loki again even as her body convulsed in pain. Her attack was for nothing however, as his body disappeared as the knife remained in her gut. Despite her own pain she pulled the blade out of her wound, only to then have another blade burrow itself in the back of her left leg. Her leg buckled under her as the flesh there tore, though she still attempted to swing her blade around to hit her infuriating opponent. The attack did not make contact, though Loki’s did. He had teleported to her other side and had reached forth to grab the back of her helmet, being careful to avoid the sharp and curved structures coming off of each of her shoulders. With his grip on her helmet Loki forced her face and body into the ground for a quick slam. Her face struck a rock strewn about in all of the mud, and Loki instantly yanked the helmet back to stress her neck painfully before slamming her back down into the rock. With her on the ground, Loki stomped a foot down on her weapon holding hand. Her gauntlet clinged onto the weapon despite his pressure, as he had no boots to assist the stomp. Instead his flesh kept its weight on her wrist joint to keep her from attacking again. Having disabled her for the moment, Loki continued his dialogue with the unknown lady, “I have some who would rather I come home in one piece, so I will acquiesce to their desires. Do you not have family of your own to return to?” At his mention of family the woman snarled and teleported out of his grip, though she only managed to appear a few feet forward and still was on her knees. The moment she reappeared she twisted around to strike Loki with her weapon only for it to once again pass straight through an illusion Loki had replaced himself with. Before she could look around for the real Loki, another blade buried itself in her punctured armor and yet another slit another part of her leg. She tumbled forward onto her stomach before crashing in all of her armor into the mud. This time Loki was even less gentle, gripping her arm and twisting it behind her back while gripping her helmet again and slamming it right into the ground. With her face on the ground Loki sent a wave of freezing magic through it. The metal dropped dramatically in temperature while it froze to the ground beneath it. This done, Loki froze the struggling woman’s arm to the armor on her back. Her fierce nature was quite irritating to him, as Loki was quite sure that he would have lost if he had not been fortunate enough to be granted an unknown energy boost from seemingly nowhere. While his overall energy level had not returned to its normal levels, Loki had twice now felt a surge in it at a time he needed it. He would not take it for granted though, and he still needed to end this fight before whatever power he was given disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. “Would explaining that I am no minion of the Betrayer keep your weapon from taking my head?” Despite her wounds, being pinned, and being frozen to the ground she continued to struggle hard enough for Loki to have to add to the coats of frost so she could not break free of them, “You reek of his stench. I am quite familiar with Illidan’s scent.” Illidan...that must be the name of the Betrayer, who had seemed well enough just being known by his designation. Illidan Stormrage would be the full name then… Around the fire Loki and the Betrayer had exchanged some more slight stories. Loki had spoken of his journeys with Thor, though nothing too major, just a mention of the witch Lorelai and her sister the Enchantress. His new companion however, this ‘Illidan’, had spoken of years locked away in a prison. The constant ridicule given to him by his ever present warden, who had stayed with him those ten thousand years to ensure that he would not escape. The jailer who had been as much a prisoner as the man behind the bars... The passion and anger shown by that warden interested Loki though. Could this be them? If so, had they chased Illidan to the afterlife to carry out whatever mad revenge they desired? Loki leaned down to look at her more closely as he smugly pieced together who this was, “Were you by chance his jailer during those ten thousand years he spoke so fondly of?” Her one good leg attempted to kick at Loki, though the prince ended her struggle with another blade in the chinks of her armor. She only gave an animalistic growl to respond to the pain before her fighting calmed down. Now laying still, she spat blood onto the ground her helmet was secured to, “I was his warden, and I still am. He will suffer a thousand deaths here before I bring him to justice. Slaying him was not enough to sate my desire for vengeance. Here, I have been promised my desire to see him endure the pains I have.” Her wording intrigued Loki. Laufey had spoken of how he had been given the chance at getting his revenge by a certain Lady Death... “Promised? Has Lady Death spoke to you? If so, how?” Now it was her turn to sound smug despite her position, as she had information Loki did not, “A lot can be said without words if one wishes. She brought me here to continue my retribution, and I could not be happier!” “My father was brought to this land with a similar desire…” Loki moved his frigid hand to her neck and after pushing her hair out of the way he found a place where her armor was softer. Where he could almost touch the skin. This accomplished, Loki began to freeze her skin the way he had chilled her armor. To accompany this new discomfort Loki questioned her, “Tell me, what did this man do to you to cause such ire that it transcends death itself? It took the murder of my own father and his people to inspire him, so I am quite curious what could drive you so.” Her voice raised even as she growled through clenched teeth, “I need not explain myself to an outsider!” Loki twisted one of the knives penetrating her flesh, a sickening squish following the action as flesh and bones were shifted, “I implore you to reconsider.” “Damn you,” she coughed out while gripping intensely a patch of grass with her free hand. Loki had a feeling that she was the type more used to causing pain than receiving it. Loki did not let his hand go from the blade, and after a moment, the woman let out another cough before speaking up, “Because of him my fellow sisters have died. Because of him our people have fought crisis after crisis!” she slammed her one free arm down and Loki could almost hear tears in her voice, ones he doubted would fall from her eyes, “His crimes must be punished, and this time he will have no-one to save him from his fate!” This woman was a severe threat Loki surmised. She would have defeated him if things had gone differently, and she claimed to have been the one to kill Illidan before. She might not be at full strength, just like Loki, which made him shudder to think about what a healthy warden would be like... Given their positions though, he could easily fix that issue. Easily, but not assuredly... “I could kill you right now. Chances are Lady Death would just bring you back to kill us, as she seems quite the sadistic witch. She wants your revenge fantasy to play out just as she wants to see this ‘Illidan’ suffer. Her tastes are quite the anomaly, but she seems to take an interest in tortured souls and other such broken things like yourself.” In a fit of rage the former warden burst from the ice and twisted over, throwing Loki off of herself as she lunged for his throat, “You filthy human, don’t you dare speak down to me!” Loki rolled off of her and managed to teleport just out of the way again, utilizing the very underhanded nature of his abilities to avoid the attack and then assault her once more. One hand gripped her cloak while a foot was planted in the back of her armor, the result being that her upper body was tugged upright while her lower back was subjected to intense pain. As Loki prepared to speak again he kicked her back down and went about freezing her entirely to the ground. Her anger was preventing her from overcoming his teleportation and illusions, so the more he could rile her up the more of a chance he had at defeating her. “Life has been difficult for you. You spend ten thousand years as the jailer of someone, only for them to be released to join your people in saving the world. When he was then cast out and banished, you sought to return him to his place behind bars even after his crimes were forgiven in lieu of his service.” “Be silent!” her wounds did not stop her from raising her voice and screaming as Loki froze her to the ground entirely. Loki could see that he was succeeding, so he continued on, “You must have chased him to the end of the world, always seeking to make him pay for whatever perceived slights he has done against you personally. I must question though, who would be so willing to devote their life to such rancor?” Any resistance she gave faded at that. Had she fallen unconscious? Loki could not tell with her helmet obscuring her face, but he decided to continue just in case. “When you thought you did justice by killing him, where did that leave you? What more purpose could you have sought after spending your whole life devoted to this one man? You must have been empty. You must have felt like nothing.” Her quivering body seemed to either show that she was seething in anger or reacting to the frigid cold. Either way, Loki was having fun taunting someone just like he used to in his old journeys with Thor. “You gave in to your hatred. While I have no knowledge of its original source, you let your emotions dictate your life to the point you had nothing left but your seething hatred, hatred that has brought you to this realm of the dead and delinquent.” Loki was quickly surprised to find that she had stopped moving to focus her energy on teleportation, electing to leave her prison rather than break free of it. Her metal boot collided with Loki’s jaw and knocked him over before Loki could do anything, and his reeling mind was unable to gather itself to teleport as she stumbled forward to kick him in the exposed stomach. “That is enough! I will not be humiliated by some filthy ape!” she cried out indignantly with a hint of extreme pain, her blood streaming down her armor including from the helmet her glowing eyes shone through. Loki curled up to protect his head as the warden dropped to her knees and began to slug at him with her gauntlets. He needed to protect his head if he was to focus enough to get out of this. “You know nothing about what I have lost! I gave everything and have nothing! Who are you to judge me?!” Each word was followed by a strong strike, her arms slugging him time after time as she choked out in obvious pain. That was enough time for Loki to regain his bearings and escape her grip, once again appearing from behind her and grappling her to the ground. He could not believe how tough this woman must be to endure her damage, at least by his standards. What were these foreign beings made out of? Loki had to gasp for breath before he could continue his infuriating speech to her and retort her point. His head was still ringing from her attack and he was not exactly used to head trauma, having always done his best to keep his face pretty. After fighting through his own pain, Loki retorted, “I have hit a point of sorrow, of despair, of anger so strangling I thought I would never return. I had cast aside my loved ones, tried killing my own brother, conspired with our enemies to bring about their own downfall.” He slammed her head into the ground again, hoping that all of the repeated trauma might knock her out, “I learned I was an adopted son, born of a monster. I nearly committed genocide on their people. I was so far gone that when the chance gave itself I let myself fall to my death.” Her body became limp and Loki released it before rising to his feet. The power he had felt surge through him was fading and he could not keep up his tricks for much longer. After taking a step away from her body, Loki continued to speak as she slowly rolled onto her back and failed to rise up. “As fate would have it, I ended up surviving my fall. I was broken. I had nothing. And yet someone took the effort to come and pick up my pieces. Place them back where they should be,” Loki huffed as he took a hand to his chest, where his crescent pendant rested on the bare skin, “While I was furious at the world around me, I overcame my despair. I passed through it to reach the point where I am at now.” The warden tried to rise to her feet again, but she only managed to get an inch up before her body crashed back into the ground weakly. She was down for the count, though her helmet concealed whatever state of consciousness she was now in. Her eyes, however, still glowed through the helmet. Loki took this to mean she was awake as well as listening, so Loki continued to chastise her, “My bonds have broken, but I intend to one day reforge them when I have brought myself to fully forgive those who brought about my ruin. My father. My brother…” his hand fell from the penchant and his expression darkened, “My own self.” Pissing her off was also serving to soothe Loki’s own inner thoughts not confronted previously. Loki had not the willpower to confront his inner conflicts when left to his own thoughts, but having someone to chastise by using them made it all the better for him. The warden lifted an arm to point at Loki, though she did not manage to lift it far from the ground before collapsing again. The green glow from her eyes disappeared briefly before returning, and her breathing grew more heavy. Even now, she wanted to wring his neck. Loki could see it in her eyes as she looked up at him. To be this far gone, this driven by anger...Loki found himself pitying the woman despite her attempt on his life. She seemed to have nothing but this all, and he could see why she had joined the many others in this land of the tormented. “I will ask you this: over ten thousand years ago, would you even recognize what you’ve become now? Is this what you wanted for yourself?” Loki paused before repeating a previous question with a new twist, “Do you not have family who would want you back how you once were?” Her eyes dimmed and the helmet grew dark again, with no verbal response coming from her. Loki sighed as he realized she may have finally fallen unconscious, not that it stopped him from thinking aloud, “I am not above killing, though I would prefer not to if I can help it. I have blood on my hands I care to wash off first before I add any.” The air around Loki chilled, and upon turning to his side he found a not too unfamiliar presence there. Lady Death had appeared right beside him as he spoke to the disgraced warden. The sudden temperature drop was becoming a norm in his life and Loki was not made all too uncomfortable by it. Similar to the freezing caused by a Frost Giant, she seemed to just suck the heat from around her. Loki smirked at the girl beside him who appeared to be a young adult in size, though her concealing cloak prevented him from actually seeing just like the warden’s helmet hid her own features, “It figures you would show up. You have no souls to take here, reaper. Your presence is most unnecessary.” The eyes of the warden lit up again and she groaned in pain, “You…” She coughed onto the ground beside her before she managed to continue, ”Go ahead. End my existence. I have nothing left as it is. You have taken everything I have cared about anyways.” Lady Death took a step toward the warden, but Loki held an arm out to block her movement. This surprised Lady Death, who actually paused at Loki’s action. Loki knew she could just do as she pleased, but he was not about to let this omnipotent being have her way while he was around. The screams of others could still be heard in the area around them, reminding him just how disturbed this being was. He spoke with as much authority as he could muster, “I will be taking things from here.” The being turned towards him, her hood once again shrouding whatever expression was on her face. She stared at him for a moment before turning around and walking into the mists, leaving as quickly as she had appeared. Her disappearance relieved Loki, who took the moment to regain his breath. After relaxing he cast his gaze over at the unresponsive warden. Perhaps he could use her assault to his advantage after all... The one known as Illidan was surprised when Loki returned to the cave and tossed a still body at his feet. Illidan first looked over the all too familiar warden before observing Loki, who now sported a half dozen knife wounds to his chest that were not there before. None of them bled, not like the wounded woman before Illidan, which was another peculiar piece of information to store away for the giant satyr being. “One of yours I believe,” Loki noted before stumbling over to his own side of the cave, dropping down onto the ground by Trixie as his sore limbs gave way. Illidan snorted as he rose up to his full height and stretched out his limbs, “Maiev. How the mighty have fallen. I take it she sought to harm you for your association with me?” Loki nodded as he brought his own head onto Trixie’s side, where her slightly dirty fur met his head and gave him the impression of silk after what he previously had slept on, “Precisely. Chances are you likely could have taken care of her yourself, but consider this my repayment for you fighting Laufey on my behalf.” That caused the Betrayer to snort, “Payment accepted. This woman spent ten millennia tormenting me before taking my life in one day. Because of her interference my attempt to save the world was stopped, and I had dire consequences to pay in kind.” Illidan held his hand out and a flash of magic came from it. Loki hazily looked to see metal restraints rise from the ground and fasten around the defeated woman’s limbs and neck, her lack of response showing that she had truly fallen unconscious if not entirely dead. Loki was about to raise his voice about her teleportation abilities before Illidan cut him off, “I am above the petty hatred she has been reduced to. Still, we will see how she enjoys being on the opposite side of the equation.” The Betrayer knelt down beside her and pulled her helmet from her face. Her skin was a lighter shade of the purple that Illidan’s own skin was, and her eyes were shut as she slowly breathed in her unconscious state. With her face revealed, Illidan brought a hand down to it and gripped it with his massive hand. “Once while visiting my cell I managed to pull her in-between the bars with my force. She was quite shocked I may say. I would have killed her back then out of my misery if not for her teleportation abilities. The only way to make sure she stays put is to seal her magic.” Another flash, this one a deep black, came from the hand and the Betrayer smirked to himself while moving back to his previous position. Loki looked at him in surprise, as magic sealing was quite a difficult spell and required great power, only for the Betrayer Illidan Stormrage to turn that smirk towards him, “You have your tricks, I have my own. You learn many things in isolation amongst demonic forces.” Loki shrugged as he made himself more comfortable beside the warm fur he was resting on, Ikol perching beside them both and curling up similarly, “I only care if there are any others who will come and kill me on your behalf.” That made the Betrayer laugh heartily, “I have not come across too many from my world, but of the limitless souls here there has to be some. You saw an old friend of mine when we first met, the collapsed Elf known as Kael’Thas.” Loki drearily spoke as he staved off a yawn, “I sense that he has his own story.” “Yes, indeed, but that is for another time. I have enough to think about with the appearance of my dear old warden.” “Take your time. It is not as if we have anything else to do.” With that, Loki passed out and fell into a deep slumber. He had no idea how long he would be there, but so far he had survived Lady Death’s challenges. Loki was sure he could survive the rest if he kept his wits working.