Bonnie exited the long house to unrepentant savagery. Dante's circle of hell inspired chaos whipped about Kattegat unchecked, while tipping the fuckery scales at a five. Children under her dominion killed one another by ruthless means. People who'd once lived together in unity as extended family now slaughtered each other on sight like confirmed blood enemies. Their brutality towards one another took shots at her maternal self-image. Each life lost convicted her. Every senseless death came for her right to call herself the mother of anything. She'd failed Faith and now she was failing them too.

For the first time in a Thurgood Jenkins' Half Baked minute she wished for the comforting loneliness of her bedroom back in Mystic Falls. Hell, she even missed when Klaus counted as ninety-nine of her hundred and one problems. She long for those times when she only defended a town of people and not the entire supernatural race.

"Supreme!" Harald called out to her from the center of the battling horde.

Relief singed his stare. To the blatant betrayal of every nerve Harald had ever twerked on, she'd admit it. Seeing the Vestfold King soothed a bit of the raw ache within her as well. The corners of her lips twitched. She opened her mouth to answer him. History, however, snatched her words and hit repeat. Although time paced forward circumstances labored backwards to give birth to a moment which still kicked back in her mind rent free. An opposing warrior crept Harald from behind. He took advantage of her brother in law's distraction and plunged a sword into his back. The blade burst from Harald's midsection. Blood spurted from his mouth as shock stretched his stare.

"No!" The single word slaughtered her vocal chords.

Visions of Halfdan assaulted her mind's eye...

"Harald, no!" Halfdan threw himself in front of Bonnie as the blade descended and he took the sharpened edge to the center of his chest.

Bonnie turned and her husband fell into her arms. Before she understood what had occurred she noticed the blood. Oh goddess there was so much blood! Her gaze darted to Harald who stood before them, bloody sword in hand. Too scared to look down she sank to the ground with Halfdan in her arms.

"Oh my Goddess! Harald, what did you do? What did you do?" She screamed.

"I-I-Halfdan..." The sword slipped from Harald's hand as he dropped to his knees in front of her.

"B-Bonnie," Halfdan's voice rattled out. "I-I'm s-sorr-,"

"Shh," she hushed him as she tried to heal him, but because of all the magic she'd expelled the eve before she could barely even take away his pain. "I can't heal you, it's not working!"

"What?" Harald bellowed. "You have to...I didn't mean-,"

"I-It's f-fate. I-I'm r-ready, my b-beauti-ful w-wife," his drooping eyes swept to Harald. Renewed strength filled his voice. "You must have a care for Bonnie and the babe." His gaze moved back to her. "Y-You both must h-have a care for the other. Do you vow?" She and Harald's gaze met and each of their heads bobbed with great reluctance. "Y-You must v-vow!"

"We vow it!" the both swore in unison.

Halfdan's fading stare settled on her. "Now say you love me once more so I may enter your halls with it resonating within my chest."

Her vision blurred as she suppressed a sob. She sniffled and forced a smile. "I love you, Halfdan the Black. And I know in my heart that our souls will find each other again."

She leaned down to press her lips to his and felt the exact moment he exhaled his last breath.

^^^^

Bonnie blinked away the memory in time to see Harald drop to his knees. The opposing warrior raised his gore slickened sword. Fatal intent glinted the man's glare. She knew without checking his aim he meant to take Harald's head. Her heart wedged itself in her throat. In that moment she no longer reigned Supreme. Madness donned the weight of her title. Though harried to the bone with her responsibilities, she refused to allow insanity to snake the wheel. She'd had e-fucking-nough! Enough of the calamities, enough of the darkness, and enough of her children behaving as if they belonged to Rosemary instead of her! She was fucking calling it!

"" She thundered. The bass in her demand shook the ground. Warriors and shieldmaidens alike halted in their fighting. Several blood drenched blades froze mere inches from their targets. Wide questioning stares crept to regard her. "This is done, Ivar has fled! Lay down your weapons." When they only gawked instead of complying rage seared her to the marrow. "Either lose your weapons or your fighting arms. The decision is yours, but it matters not the choice you make. This war is over! The Boneless King's rule is no more." Her glare moved over the crowd until it locked with an approaching Bjorn. "The Iron King now reigns."

With her declaration leveled, Bonnie descended the steps leading up to the long house two at a time. As she passed Bjorn she slapped the household sword to his chest. He allowed the key to his kingdom to clatter to the ground. She offered zero fucks to his ever entitled Lothbrok demand that she Stan. The single concern which resonated with her at present lay bleeding out several paces away from her. Saving Harald meant a hell of a lot more to her than kinging Bjorn.

"What do you mean Ivar has fled?!" Bjorn bellowed at her back.

Once at Harald's side she crouched next to him. His chest barely rose and fell, while his eyes appeared distant and fixed. Without supernatural intervention, he'd soon be standing in the hall of champions. Like hell! That was not his fate. Not yet anyway. He still had a country to unite and fifty-eleven women just waiting to curve him.

By thought alone she opened her wrist, and then placed the dripping wound to his lips. At first he didn't respond. Metallic red and gold fluid filled his mouth and dribbled from the corners of his lips. After moments of no response, her vision blurred. Tiny fissuring cracks in her essence widened. She'd hated him before hello and now the bastard had died and screwed her out of a goodbye. Just like his selfish, but really selfless brother! A tear trickled down her cheek as she withdrew her wrist from his mouth. Callous hands rose to hold the appendage in place.

"Not yet!" Harald managed to rasped between gulps without opening his eyes. "You may have overcome my end. Yet I cannot feel my legs. So if you will."

"Harald," she gasped. Too relieved to remember herself or care, she rested her forehead on his.

His hands left her wrist to cradle the sides of her head in his palms. "Forgive me for not returning sooner."

"No!" Bonnie lifted her head from his to stare straight into his pupils. Harald snatched his gaze away. Not before, however, she witnessed guilt and self-conviction fill his down casted eyes. "I don't forgive you...why would I ever? What have you done to warrant my forgiveness? Nothing!" She shook her head. "Yet I do honor you...because you didn't have to come at all. Though despite all the opposition moving against your efforts, you came for me anyway. For doing so I thank you, Harald...and I also vow to always do the same for you in return."

"I offered you and Halfdan my word," he rasped back as his fingers threaded themselves with her braids. "To have a care for you, and the..." He exchanged his final word for a sigh which spoke on his lack of rest or minimal care for himself.

Bonnie took him unawares by gathering his upper body to hers. She then placed her wrist back to his mouth as a perpetrating frown lifted the corner of her lips. "And he would be pleased. Now rest and heal."

"Rest? I will not rest as if I'm the old and addled!" He attempted to push her wrist away. "I must name myself King of Kattegat before Bjorn-,"

She forced her wrist back in his mouth. "Stop attempting to liken your intelligence to your tiny shoe size, Harald! Why concern yourself with Kattegat when all of Norway will be under your rule?" She allowed her sorcery to prick the pads of her fingers to ease him into slumber. "Now sleep!"

Harald's head rolled backwards and she caught it before the back of his skull could strike the land. After replacing him on the ground, she waved to a few warriors who hovered near them gawking.

"Carry King Harald to my keep to recover," she said.

The men hurried over to lift the unconscious king. Bonnie raised her hand to stall their leave. She looked him over once more, and then ran a palm across his stomach. Though his armor there remained torn and bloody, the gaping hole in his abdomen had healed. A breath crept from her lips as a nod bowed her head. After a final assessing glance she allowed the warriors to carry out her order. She then rose. As soon as she stood, two small bodies collided with hers, tackling her to the ground. Short slender arms wrapped themselves about her. When she managed to angle her face just so to visually confront her miniature attackers, liquid doubt flooded her stare.

"H-Hali...Asa?" She shifted into an upright position, tugging them both into a snug embrace.

Asa wrapped her arms around Bonnie's neck. Once snuggled in the crook of her arm the little princess rested her cheek on her shoulder. Bonnie stroked the back of the younger girl's head, while using her opposing arm to cuddle Hali closer. After all of the fuckery that came for her over the passing year their presence marked an end to the darkness. Their reappearance in Kattegat bathed the end of her murky tunnel in blazing sun worthy light.

"Bonsie," Hali angled his face up to look at her. A slight scowl wrinkled the skin between his brows. "You sought your leave of us again. Even after I kept Asa and Ayana from harm, you still didn't honor your word."

Bonnie searched Hali's upturned face. Although only a solstice cycle separated them he and his sister had grown as if time itself had pressed fast forward. She forced a smile though a frown burdened the corners of her mouth.

She pushed several errant strands of hair from his eyes. "But I didn't have my leave of you, Yoda...you left me." Shame forced his gaze from hers, but she took hold of his chin to bring his electric stare back. "And well you should have. For it was what kept you all safe and now you've returned to me." Another body slammed her from the side, toppling them once more into the sand. Ropes of pale braids obstructed her vision as another set of arms clung to her. When the curtain of hair shifted, condensation came hard for the chunk of ice residing in her chest. "Torvi!"

"Bonnie!" Torvi cried back.

The two smaller bodies trapped between them squirmed. They both laughed as Torvi hoisted herself off of Bonnie and the children along with her. As she too moved to right herself a hand reached down to offer her assistance to her feet. Without question or sight, she took the offered appendage. Once back on her feet she locked eyes with a pair of Lothbrok blues that always gave her the case of the what if's.

"Ubbe." Her one.

A lingering jones tossed her back into a recollection so heated the memory provoked her mind to sweat...

Their bare bodies moved together like they'd ground to the pounding beat of each other's hearts for years. Her pussy curved to every swollen inch of him as if the creator of all always intended for them to become one. Every powerful thrust from him tore his name from the base of her throat. While every clenching grip from her wrenched a litany of worshiping chants from the split of his trembling lips.

Each soul rocking sensation provoked her to tear layers of skin from his back. In turn his punishing grasp branded his fingerprints upon the skin at her hips. He laid claim to her in a way he'd never done when her heart for a time had been his to hold. Yet the past had no say in their stolen interlude. Neither did the future. Only the present held meaning...

^^^^

The vision cleared. Ubbe remained before her. His sky blues bore into her. The intensity of his stare still fucked over her brain. Fifty-eleven testimonies sparked in his stare, firing her up in all the ways that inspired elation and shame. Her gaze drifted to his lips and more memories crawled from the crevices of her mind. A hint of a smirk twisted the perfection of his mouth. The only tell that boasted their thoughts traveled along the same pathways. As if he too remembered how they gave unto each other until nothing remained but one.

"Greetings, Valkyrie," Ubbe murmured. More graceful than she knew him to be, he dropped to one knee and offered her a formal warriors bow. "Supreme."

****

Bjorn ripped through the great hall with Hvitserk lending shadows to his steps. His pace didn't slow until he breached the beads of Ivar's personal quarters. The sight which greeted him upon arrival nigh set him to flames. Bonnie had not misspoken. His youngest brother had indeed fled. Nothing but the head of his offending wife remained. Like a serpent relieved of its tail, Ivar had slithered away to wait for the next moment to strike. Hvitserk kicked the personal dining table. The slab of wood hurtled across the room.

"She let him flee!" Hvitserk thundered as he spun about, casting his gaze over every inch of the chambers. "Did I not speak it?! Did I not say, she'd never hold Ivar accountable?" He marched across the room to the severed head. Once he towered over the horror stricken face, he kicked it and the head soared across the quarters through the window. Hvitserk then whipped around to glare at him. "She allowed him to flee because she refuses to see him condemned. Even after he murdered our daughter and my wife. Now because of her foolish affections he'll return and slaughter us all." He then stalked from the room.

"Ack!" Bjorn shoved at the air as if his disgust lingered before him.

He spun about to have leave of the quarters he knew to be the spot of his gravest betrayal. Perhaps Hvitserk had the right of it. Perhaps Bonnie had allowed Ivar to flee. Yet he couldn't comprehend why. After all the calamities his youngest brother wrought, he deserved nothing less than to answer for his offenses. Did she still see him as the hobbled boy who slithered about Kattegat? Did she not sight him as the treacherous warrior he'd become? He'd ravaged their shores and claimed their city. How could she allow him to flee?

When he burst from the great hall the horde lumbering about split. Lagertha, the greatest shieldmaiden to ever live stood before him. The sight unhinged his jaw. The point of his chin nigh skewered his chest. Words fled his tongue. Unutterable emotions consumed him. Emotions far better suited for babes who still suckled at their mother's breasts. Not men such as he. Especially not would be kings! How had she come to be there? Had she arrived on the back of a winged steed? Did she forsake the halls of Valhalla to wish him well for reclaiming Kattegat? His scrutiny swept her from crown to boots, and then returned to her out-stretched arms. A sword swathed in a silken material lay across her palms.

"Mother?" Bjorn blinked to test the vision before him.

Gunnhild left the horde to stand at his side. He barely took note of her. His mother's return from beyond the veil claimed the whole of his focus. Slow and steady in her approach, Lagertha held his stare with a smile fastened upon her lips.

"All hail King Bjorn Ironside," Lagertha called out. When only a few voices lifted to repeat her demand. She roared once more. "All hail Bjorn Ironside the king of Kattegat!"

"All hail King Bjorn Ironside!" This time all warriors and shieldmaidens within hearing paces roared back at her. Even those who fought on the opposing side of the battle.

When Lagertha halted before Bjorn, he dropped to one knee. There among the citizens and the dead which covered the ground, she placed the sword in his hands. Kattegat faded into a snow blanketed clearing. A single path which diverged into two appeared before him. Each pathway led to their own mountain. One snow capped peak appealed to his senses. The enticing climb demanded his steps. Its way felt ordained, fateful even.

Yet the other spangled alp loomed before him larger than any plan fate may have thought to plot. The mystical precipice called to his essence. Demanding him in such a way the numinous force overruled the tapestry destiny had long ago stitched for his life. His draw to the mystic crag felt visceral, or more so inevitable.

"You have two paths before you, Bjorn Ironside eldest son of Ragnar," The seer's voice crept into his ears from behind.

Unable to tear his eyes from the paths before him, he uttered. "Is this real?"

"Only one path is as real as the trail you now tread upon or the seas you once sailed, Bjorn Ironside" The seer answered.

His heart slammed against his chest. "Then which way is the right one...the real path?"

"Only you can say," The seer replied. "One of those paths will lead you to a good life filled with sons and many risings of peace."

Though such a life should be honored and chosen, he still couldn't commit fully to the way. His gaze drifted to the mystical one. "And the other?"

"Will afford you Nirvana on Midgard...for only a season." The seer answered. "Then death and Odin will come to demand their due." He felt the seer draw near. Yet he still couldn't tear his eyes from the mountains to look upon him. "In death many will come to know the name Bjorn Ironside. Your life and adventures will be song for ages to come. So which path will you choose?"

Bjorn's gaze moved between the two magnificent ends, before settling on one.

****

Hvitserk shoved his way through the milling throng of warriors and shieldmaidens. He had no intention of lingering about to praise Bjorn for a victory they all had blade in claiming. Though the thought of returning to the home he and Thora shared held even less appeal. No he wanted nothing more than a dark hold deep and wide enough for him and his guilt. He also desired a tankard and maybe even a wench who's thighs parted with ease!

Decided upon his fate for the next several eves, Hvitserk turned. Bonnie's departing back slipping away from the gathered crowd pilfered him of his plans and became his focus. Maneuvering around a horde of moving bodies, he turned down a pathway next to the long house to interrupt her chosen path. If his blade must forego the taste of Ivar's blood, then she'd come to know the burn of his ire. He rounded a small keep in time to see Ubbe handle Bonnie into the black smith's covering. Understanding eluded him. Bjorn claimed Ubbe and Torvi had become Christians and settled the land in East Anglia. So why had he returned to Kattegat? To Bonnie?