Alright, here we go! Final chapter! Sorry that took a little longer than expected. Life got wild for a minute there. But this thing is DONE and I can stop agonizing over it! As stated before, I'm going to go through the previous chapters and clean up some of the mistakes, but I'm not planning on outright redoing any of them. I'm also going to be redoing the listing and description of this story, because I think it's gotten away from where it started just a little bit...

Gonna also quickly note that I stole another Lovecraftian Great Old One for one of our Elder Shadowmen in this chap, so say hi and then immediately bye to Hastur!

The gore in the small stone room had reached a level unfathomable to the human mind. Yig had screamed and hissed, but thus far, his life force held strong. For now, this pleased the monsters masquerading as men. It was true that they'd all grown tired of these recent events, but how often did one get the chance to torture their elders like this? And such a dislikable one at that…

They revelled in it.

'What do you think the next round should be?' Aiden asked in ghoulish delight, 'I think we've let him rest long enough.'

Yig answered with a wheezing snarl. It was the best he could do at this point.

'I'm finishing this. It's my right.' Julian responded.

'Just because-'

'What's the rush?' Asked Erik.

'We can still take the win from you, you know.' Tariq added.

'Isn't it obvious?' Aiden sneered, 'He wants to get back to his precious human before-'

Suddenly, blinding light filled the whole room.

All eyes turned to find that Yig's whole body was glowing. He looked just as surprised as the rest of them. There was only enough time for him to share a startled look with Julian before his body dissolved into a thousand flickering lights.

The demons only watched the lights blinking out for a second before turning their attention to the distant screams of the great object that held dominion over their life essence.

"The stave."

"His name was…"

With the screams of the stave came ripples of electricity as the other Shadowmen reacted to what happened. The air of Niflheim practically seemed to boil with the rising panic of its inhabitants. Yig hadn't just finally died: Someone had carved his name off the stave, and it was someone who had the power to scare an entire race of ancient demons.

"Jenny."

It wasn't just Julian that went white as a sheet, although the reasoning may have been different. The four instantly burst into shadows, scrambling to the frozen surface and blasting back towards where they'd left the meddling human.

Jenny was still face down in a pool of her own blood when they arrived. The other Shadowmen were swirling around her angrily, but there wasn't much else they could do to her in her current state. Julian wasn't even sure if she was breathing.

All eyes turned to them when they entered the room, and the furious whispering peaked.

"She has manipulated the stave again!"

"She struck his name out!"

"She must pay!"

Julian ignored them to push through and lift Jenny's limp body out of the gore. Were humans supposed to get that cold? Her chest wasn't moving.

"It looks like she's paid enough, don't you think?" Tariq snarled from behind Julian, but his voice was distant.

He traced the blood running down Jenny's body back to a sizable head wound. His breath rasped in his throat at the realization she'd been left to bleed out for a while. How long had she been laying there? How long had he left her to suffer…? He hadn't thought they'd been gone for so long, but…

"She tried to run, so we stopped her."

Julian looked up at his brothers with eyes as bright as the core of a flame.

"We were doing you a favor~"

"So this wasn't even punishment for getting the stave?!" He roared.

Most of the stares he earned were nonplussed.

Erik looked at Jenny for a long moment before turning to his elders, "She wasn't your life to take. That wasn't your right."

"How did you even get permission to touch her?" Tariq was asking as Julian turned back to Jenny.

He was kneeling, with her propped up leaning on his upwards knee. With his hands free, he was able to check for a pulse.

Nothing in her wrists.

"She pushed me~" One of the Shadowmen giggled.

"She deserved it for what she's done." Another snarled.

"And what has she done?" Tariq snapped, "She didn't cheat, you morons! She's playing!"

"It wasn't a fair win!" One of the elders argued, "She manipulated the stave outside of her physical body."

"I would have seen her punished for that!" Aiden shouted, "You lot didn't need to butt in! I was going to-!"

"I hardly count it as butting in, seeing as they admitted they did this to her before she even got the stave." Erik pointed out, "That would make the lot of them cheaters."

"Yes," One of the demons chuckled, "Well you can't punish us all."

"No, I suppose." Erik replied, "But the rule is a life for a life... I think we should hold a raffle to see which one of you is getting marked off the stave for your transgressions."

"You can't do that! You-!"

"Watch us, you old-!" Aiden was shouting.

Julian didn't hear any of them. His breath was coming in short gasps as he switched to feeling for a pulse right on one of Jenny's carotids.

"Besides, it's not like we made a rule against her doing that." Erik reasoned, "Really, she played her hand beautifully."

There.

It was faint, so faint, but Julian felt a beat under his fingers. He turned his attention to her head wound. She wouldn't have a heartbeat, faint or not, for long if he didn't do something about that soon. He swallowed hard, finding himself actually thankful that Jenny wasn't conscious for what he was about to do next. Shadowmen were powerful in many ways, but healing had never been a strong suit for his kind. The way they handled it, healing became a sort of torture of its own. All he could do was hope the pain wouldn't wake her.

"This is all your fault anyways."

Who was that? Their voice had such a beautiful timber.

"What do you mean by that?"

Another voice. It sounded a lot like-?

"You're the one that showed up at my-"

"Who brought me back to life, Jenny?"

Jenny? That name sounded familiar… Was that her name? It was hard to remember, everything was so blurry and her head - god, it hurt so much.

"We went over this. I don't know!"

That voice, that was her voice. Jenny's voice. She… She remembered this.

"What have your dreams been about lately?"

Yes, it was becoming clearer now. Figures were fading into view. She couldn't quite see their faces yet, but she knew the figure with the white hair was Julian and the smaller blonde was her. She couldn't see them, but she knew there were more people in the distance. This was… This had been when she found out she had the power to get the stave.

"I don't know. Why does that matter?"

"Think hard."

The scene was coming further into focus. She could see Julian's eyes glaring down at her past self. Even in his fury he was beautiful. Here in the confines of - well, wherever this was - she felt safe admitting just how much she loved him. Perhaps that was what had given her the power to bring him back to life.

"I…?"

"Have you ever heard of astral projection?"

"What does that…?"

Her head was pounding so badly she was forced to look down at her hands instead of the scene playing out before her. They were covered in blood. Not just red, but silvery white too. She knew what it meant.

"You dreamt of Niflheim, didn't you? You dreamt of a cave, of the stave of life."

Perhaps that was what had given her the power to take his life away from him.

"But is was only a dream!"

A life for a life.

"It wasn't. You wanted something. You wanted it so badly that you managed to step out of your own body to get it."

"I won the game!" Jenny had to scream to hear herself over the pain in her head as she sat upright. The world lurched unsteadily beneath her as a wave of nausea hit her like a freight train and she was forced to fall back against whatever had been supporting her as she fell into a pained fit of ragged gasps.

There were voices all around her, but she was too sick to look. It didn't matter - she knew who was surrounding her. She knew the fury in their eyes. It was likely that they weren't going to honor her win, and she didn't want to see that truth yet.

Arms were wrapping around her. The person whose knee she was leaning against fully sat down and pulled her into their lap. Jenny burrowed her face into his chest because she knew without looking that it was Julian. She wished she could stay here with him forever, but she knew their time was short. She could hear the shadows closing in around her, and they were demanding retribution.

Aiden's voice was what cut through Jenny's fog, and it made her sick to her stomach, "She's alive?" There was almost a note of panic in his voice, "Then she needs to be judged!"

"On what count?" She heard Erik growl, "We've gone over this."

"She needs to be punished for killing Yig! As a human-"

"Then maybe you shouldn't have made the game's goal killing him!" Erik argued, "She was playing! Unless you'd like to admit you cheat?"

"You were playing as her proxy~" An unfamiliar shadow noted.

"Yes, if she wanted to win, one of you should have dealt the blow."

"That wasn't how it was agreed upon." Tariq dismissed them. There was a pause as Jenny assumed he turned back to Aiden, "You were angry about her fate earlier. Has the sudden change of heart come about... because, oh, you remembered that we get to take you now~?"

"I-!" When Julian's grip tightened around Jenny, she assumed Aiden must have been glaring down at her, "That's not-!"

A low chuckle started up all around them that swelled into deafening applause. All around them, taunts were thrown at Aiden as the other Shadowmen realized the deal Jenny had made with Erik and Tariq.

"I'll just kill her." Aiden bit out.

Julian abruptly pulled them to stand. Another wave of nausea had Jenny swaying for a painfully long moment, but eventually she found her footing and she finally turned away from Julian's sanctuary to take in her surroundings.

Aiden was standing directly in front of her, his hand raised to strike. He probably would have already killed her if not for Erik and Tariq's grip on his arms and throat. All he could do now was stare down on her, and his eyes were feral.

"This isn't over." Aiden hoarsely snarled at her, even as crystalline blood started trickling from where Erik's claws dug into his windpipe.

"We had so much fun together." Jenny bit out with a shaking voice, "Too bad our time was so short."

Hearing his own words quoted back at him drove Aiden mad and he attempted to throw himself at her. Julian was instantly between the two, but it didn't matter. Erik and Tariq were already dragging their new toy off kicking and screaming.

Around them, the shadows continued to laugh.

The three demons disappeared, leaving only a fingernail embedded in the drag marks to prove that they'd been there. Jenny knew without a doubt that even if she lived past this day, she was never going to see Aiden again. Her stomach twisted with a dark emotion she was not used to: good riddance.

"This has been thoroughly entertaining," A particularly ancient voice caught Jenny's attention. When she looked up, she couldn't pick out what set of eyes the voice belonged to, but judging by the way Julian bristled, the voice must have belonged to one of the important elders. "But we still must make a decision about the girl."

Julian let out an inhuman snarl, "She didn't cheat! She won the game fairly! You don't have the right!"

"I am aware of the laws, Julian." The voice growled. Jenny couldn't even determine what direction the sound was coming from, and Julian certainly wasn't give her any clues. "I don't plan to punish her for winning a game."

Around them, shadows were turning to leave. The elder admitting they weren't going to be killing Jenny had obviously been enough to make them lose interest. Even with significantly less eyes surrounding them, Jenny couldn't manage to pick out which demon they were speaking to, and that fact filled her spine with tingling fear.

"I am worried about the fact that she has accessed the stave twice now." The demon went on to say, "She's dangerous."

"What are you saying…?" Julian censored. His brilliant blue eyes were flicking to meet every single set of remaining eyes. There were only a few left, only ten pairs. Jenny reasoned they must have been the remaining elders, now that Yig was not amongst their ranks.

Jenny whirled, trying to make eye contact with each of them with the vain hope that this kind of brave move might spare her. As she made her round, there was one set that managed to catch her eyes in particular. There was nothing specifically interesting about this demon - In fact, the octopus-like eyes it sported had been some of the least disturbing ones she'd seen so far. But even though all of the eyes were trained on her, these ones somehow called for her attention. It was a supernatural pull, and she understood its intention perfectly.

"You need to be stopped." The voice came again, addressing Jenny directly. It belonged to the octopus eyes she was staring into. The voice was all around her, but she knew this demon was its owner. This was revealed to be true as said demon stepped out of the shadows and up to Jenny. He was tall, a desiccated corpse dressed head to toe in robes a shade of yellow that instantly sent Jenny's stomach churning.

"Hastur, don't-"

The demon's eyes flicked past Jenny to where Julian was, "She won't be killed." Then he looked back down at her, "I'm simply going to… make sure you cannot access the stave again."

"What do you-" Jenny started.

Hastur's hand shot out and closed over her face. His fingers were so long and spindly that his hand was able to encompass her entire head. Before Jenny could so much as struggle, blinding pain filled Jenny's skull. She tried to scream, but his palm covered both her nose and mouth, and she couldn't get any air.

Jenny thought maybe she could hear Julian shouting, but they both knew better than to get in the way of whatever Hastur was doing. All Jenny could do was writhe under the demon's power and hope she didn't pass out again.

The pain stopped just as abruptly as it started.

Hastur drew back his hand, half turned away, then stopped to regard Jenny thoughtfully. "You're a fascinating human. I commend you for beating my brothers."

"Wh-what did you do to me?" Jenny breathed, feeling her head for anything obvious.

"I took away your ability to dream." He stated, "I sealed you within that flesh coffin." The great demon in yellow fully turned away now, and tossed her a single farewell before he melted into the shadows: "Good luck, Jenny."

Jenny had to take a moment to process that. He'd taken away her ability to dream so that she couldn't astral project… And that was her only punishment? There had to be something more, right? Sure, the process had been painful, but the punishment didn't seem particularly cruel. In fact, it was perfectly reasonable. Jenny had been expecting to suffer for all eternity, and Hastur's judgement had amounted to a mere slap on the wrist.

She turned toward Julian with searching eyes, but he was making eye contact with one of his elders. Jenny's heart dropped into her gut. The other nine were still standing around them - of course Hastur's punishment hadn't been the only thing that would be thrown at her.

"What else?" Julian bit out.

"Oh~ A glutton for punishment, I see!" One of the other elders chuckled.

"She can't go back." Another cut to the point, obviously bored of the whole affair, "She's caused enough havoc as it is without going back and revealing our existence."

"How do you think she would-"

"Where am I supposed to go, then?" Jenny asked quietly.

The elders laughed, "That's not our problem. Travel the other realms if you so feel like it! But if you even try to return to Midgard, we'll kill you."

Julian opened his mouth to retort, but the remaining demons were already melting into the shadows with a laugh. This was probably for the best. There was no need to flare the elder's ire anymore than they already had.

"Have fun trying to find food, human!"

"She'll freeze to death, first!"

This all seemed very funny to them, because their laughter echoed through the air for quite a long time after they'd physically gone.

Jenny dropped to her knees once she could no longer hear the echoes of their laughter. Tears blinded her vision so she buried her face in her hands. Her head was pounding from both the head wound and Hastur's punishment, and without the adrenaline pumping through her veins anymore, she was cold. Cold and defenseless in a world that she didn't belong in.

She'd won the game. She'd beaten the Shadowmen. She'd even survived killing a Shadowman! But somehow she still felt like the Shadowmen had won.

Jenny couldn't handle it.

She'd been so certain she was going to die today that she couldn't fathom how she was still breathing right now. Maybe the head wound had actually killed her and this was just the final dream before her brain shut down for good.

She couldn't get that lucky.

No, Jenny had lived, but now she was trapped on Niflheim. How was she supposed to get to the other realms if she couldn't astral project? That had been a joke, she was certain. She was imprisoned here - doomed to die slowly with no food, water, or even real shelter.

The Shadowmen always got the last laugh.

Jenny didn't know how long she cried. It felt like it could have been days, even though she knew that wasn't true. Eventually, she had no tears left to give, so she uncurled her frozen fingers from her face to look around at her new 'home'.

Julian sat cross legged directly in front of her. Snow that had blown in from outside the cave had become a thin mantle around his shoulders, telling Jenny that they must have been there for a while. The Shadowman had been regarding her with an odd mixture of emotions, but when she finally looked up at him, he lit up. Cradled in his lap, Julian had a large mug of that strange liquid from way back in Joyland Park. It was still steaming. He'd… he'd been keeping it hot for her.

Jenny let out a breath, unsure of what to say when Julian silently offered it to her. She wanted to cry all over again, but she couldn't manage to will up any emotions that would produce tears. She felt hollow, bereft. Instead, she took blessed offering from him and held it up to her face, breathing in the hot steam. She hadn't realized just how cold she really was. "You waited for me."

He seemed confused, "Of course I waited for you."

Jenny smiled sadly and took a sip of the concoction - then several long swigs. She couldn't stop herself. She finished the whole thing without stopping for a breath.

Julian simply took the mug back and held it between both his hands. A slight breeze swirled around them, stirring up some of the settled snow, then the mug was refilling. When it was full again, Julian offered it back to her.

It was such a small act, Jenny was sure, but it was heartbreaking. He was so willing to make her happy, and she'd put the both of them through all of this. Jenny wanted to thank him, to apologize, but her words choked in her throat. Instead, she took the mug back and just held it, letting her hands warm back up.

"I wanted to make a bargain," Julian finally said. He'd turned his eyes away from her, "I think we could help each other out…"

Jenny stared at him in surprise, "What, you give me shelter and I give you love?"

Julian grimaced, "Something to that effect."

"That hurts, you know."

His eyes snapped back to hers, "What hurts?"

"That you thought we needed to make a bargain." Jenny set her mug down so she could scoot so far forward her knees rested against Julian's. She reached out and took his hands in hers, then she looked up into his wide eyes, "Just because I said I didn't want to be owned by you, I didn't mean I didn't want to be with you. I just didn't want it to end up like-" Jenny cast a glance around the empty frozen cave and finally her tears returned to her in a rush of emotions.

She'd never see her friends or family again.

She was trapped in Niflheim. Land of ice and shadows. Land of thousands of monsters that wanted her dead.

Jenny launched herself forward, sitting right in Julian's lap so she could wrap her arms around his neck and bury her tear-stained face in it. "I just didn't want to be imprisoned." She finally mewled.

"Oh." Julian couldn't manage anything better than that. He was fairly certain the emotion he was feeling right now was remorse and he hated it. It put him off kilter. The feeling hurt in his chest and Jenny's tears only made it worse and he hated it.

His arms snaked around her shoulders to hold her tight. None of this should have happened. He should have known better. He should have played his hand differently… He should have done many things differently.

But here they were. Jenny was alive, albeit emotionally desolate. It wasn't the worst case scenario. He could work with this. It was going to be hard making Jenny happy again, but if he looked at it like a game, Julian could find a way to overcome it. He could show Jenny she still had a life ahead of her.

Carefully, Julian reached around Jenny so he could pick the mug back up from the snow. It had cooled a little, but he solved that with a small burst of power. "Jenny," When she looked up at him, he offered her the mug.

With a sniffle, she took it. Cradling its warmth. "I should have just said yes from the beginning. I shouldn't have let my friends interfere."

Julian hated the hopeless tone in her voice, "I want to make you a home. A warm one - it won't be the nightmare house. It will be a new game."

Jenny looked up at him in surprise and no small amount of concern.

"I'm going to make you happy again. That's the game. That's it." He sighed, "I'm too tired for anything else."

The sides of Jenny's mouth twitched as she processed what he'd said, then slowly turned up into a small smile. She leaned her head against his chest and looked up at him with eyes bright with tears, "What happens when you win?"

"You'll be happy."

"Will you be happy?" She pressed.

"I'm happy when I'm with you." Julian said thoughtfully, "I'm-I'll be happy when you're happy."

"I guess that's the game, then. See who can make the other happiest?" Jenny smiled up at him. She could handle this one. At last, a game she could play with Julian that she'd truly like. Her heart still hurt, but now her exile was looking a little brighter. "Bet I can win~"

Julian's eyes sparked with challenge, "We'll see about that."

Okay, that's it. That's the story. Finally. This has taken six years I think? Not super proud of that, but I'm glad it's finally done.

So now that this thing is done, I don't think I'll be writing anything else here until we hear more word on Rematch. Hopefully the wait won't be too long, because there are several talented writers here that I'd love to see come back!

Thanks to everyone who left reviews and supported me through this (way too long) process! You guys are all the best and I love all of you!

Ok, that's it. Done being sappy. I'll show myself out :)