Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘Loki? They’re coming. No more than two minutes.’

‘I’m ready.’

‘Are you sure the Midgardians will help us?’

‘They’ll aid you, almost certainly, and if they do not help me, understandably, we can leave for somewhere else once you recover. We won’t get any further than normal if we don’t get help, at least at the beginning. Will you stay conscious long enough?’

‘What numbered escape will this be?’

‘Hmm, about the twelfth, but don’t try to divert the subject, lítt foa.’

‘I’m fine, Loki. It still hurts a lot, especially since I won’t let it heal, but I will be able to do this. I have to be able to do this.’

Footsteps were heard coming closer, echoing in the space, before the rasping screech of thick metal bars moving on stone.

“Wake up,” said a hoarse voice, almost as jarring as the bars themselves. “Master wishes an audience with the princesses again today.” The voice laughed dryly as it walked forward. “On your feet.”

Loki lifted his head and glanced in the direction of the voice. He stood up slowly, then looked down. “Lift your arms a bit.” Loki whispered. ‘And act more injured than you are.’

‘Well, duh. I’m not an amateur, Loki.’ He could practically hear the eye roll.

He helped his companion up gently, using the walls of the corner they were in as support. As soon as they were both up, one fully leaning on the other and breathing heavily, the owner of the voice moved to stand before them.

“Arms up.” It said. Loki lifted his arms carefully from where they steadied the one beside him. Engraved metal shackles were snapped around his wrists, with a 30cm length of chain dangling between. The clasps melted together as soon as they were secure.

Gnarly grey fingers then reached to Loki’s neck, and just before the hand touched him, a nearly translucent glowing indigo collar faded into existence on both him and his companion, with a line of almost ethereal, thin chain links joining the two. It flared slightly brighter when contact was made. An unintelligible grunt-like word made it flash green for a second, then the hand withdrew. Loki breathed a quiet sigh of relief as the collars disappeared again.

‘They are so overconfident. They didn’t even put the shackles on me before releasing us! Just because I’m injured doesn’t mean I’m useless. Alright. I’m starting the spell. Delay for a bit.’

‘I’ve got the place that we want to land at. Go when ready.’

“You too. Don’t be so pathetic. You won’t get any sympathy from me. Come here.” It narrowed its beady yellow eyes at them as it spoke.

“She can’t walk. You creatures hurt her too much.” Loki's voice grated slightly from disuse and a dry throat. “Without our magic, she can’t heal. She can barely even stay consci-“

“Be silent. I don’t care how injured it is, either you’ll both walk, or you’ll both be dragged out to see the Master.”

“All you Chitauri scum are insolent buffoons who seem to be completely unable to comprehend even the most basic of sentences. She can’t. Walk. How much clearer do I have to make it.” He spoke quickly, nearly spitting the words out.

The grey hand shot out, and embedded a wicked edged blade deep in Loki’s side before twisting sharply. Red blood immediately started gushing around the hilt and dripping to the stone floor. Loki hardly made a noise, but gave a quick grimace of pain.

“Loki!” a weak feminine voice whispered in alarm.

‘I will be fine. Just concentrate!’ Loki had hunched over slightly, but kept his arms holding his female companion.

“It seems you mongrels still have not learned subservience. Again, I will inform the Master to increase your punishment. I wonder what he will choose to inflict on you next.” The Chitauri soldier twisted the blade further in Loki's side on the last word.

It left the blade, briefly wiping its hand now stained red with blood on its leg, and turned to the second prisoner, taking another identical set of shackles from a pouch at its side. “Hands up. Don’t make this worse for yourself, however entertaining it may be for me.” With these words, it roughly grabbed her by her right arm and yanked her fully to her feet, away from Loki.

‘Loki, would you get this stinking pile of garbage off me before I try to kick it where it would hurt the most?’

‘Focus on the spell, foa. I’d rather not lose a limb.’

‘I’m a girl, Loki, I can multitask. Hmm. Maybe I should kick it myself then anyway.’

An amused glint in his eyes at her comments, Loki moved to pull the Chitauri, but he halted as another blade, held in the same hand as the shackles, was pressed against the left side of his chest.

“Stop, filth. Even you will not survive a knife straight through the heart.” Loki lowered his hands back to his sides, his shackles clinking softly. “Good, now,” the guard moved and put the knife to the neck of the limp girl in his grasp, not bothering to avoid her injuries or hold her up properly, and placed her between itself and Loki. “Put the shackles on it yourself. No more tricks.” With that, it threw the shackles to the floor at Loki’s feet.

Loki haltingly bent down and picked them up, his blood still dripping on the already splattered floor, then slowly walked to his companion, glaring at the Chitauri. The Chitauri noticed his pace though, and moved the blade in warning, until blood started seeping.

“Hurry up. Do not keep the Master waiting. Put them on now, or we’ll find out what happens if one separates its head from its neck. Neither of you have magic, it will die,” it snarled.

‘Ha, how little it knows. Put them on, Loki. The spell will still work. It’s not technically me using the magic anymore. We can get them off later.’

The shackles made a click as they shut, before also melting at the clasps.

“So you can follow orders. Now walk.”

“Let me hold her. You need not bother yourself.”

‘Slægr nadr.’

The Chitauri narrowed its beady eyes at him, then scoffed. “I am no fool. You may support its other side, but I will keep hold of it. I do not trust either of you, especially with that blade, though I will not risk you bleeding out if I remove it.”

‘It just has to be difficult. Change of plan. Keep thinking of the place, I’ll finish the spell now. Kill it with the blade while it’s still disoriented. You won’t have much time, but I guess it’s better we kill it now than let it tell others we’re gone. Just be careful. Neither of us will stay awake for long.’

‘Alright. I’m ready.’

Loki quickly moved back to his companion’s side and let her lean on him again. The Chitauri placed itself just behind them, still holding the girl’s arm with one hand, and the blade now against her back with the other. It roughly pushed forward, prompting Loki to also move.

As soon as the girl took a shaking step forward, all three disappeared.

******* 

It was the early evening and the New Avengers were absolutely exhausted after their latest separate missions, relaxing on the communal floor of the Avengers Tower.

Well, except for Peter Parker, the Spider-Man, who was literally bouncing around the walls with some inhuman cross of young energy and enhanced spider senses.

“...I really wish we could just deal with something bigger than this ‘cause right now all we’re doing is police work, which I basically did before Tony invited me here. I mean today Tony just fired at them once like *deeee-bwomf* and some of them ran.” He imitated the Iron Man firing pose in mid-air. “Of course, I was like “oh, no you don’t” and swung at them like this," here he did a backflip between launching off the ceiling and to another wall to the side of the bar. "And then shot my web at them like *ffffffwiip* and tied them all up, but some split up and Tony and I had to chase them but they went behind buildings and pipes where the suit couldn’t manoeuvre around too easily and made it hard for me to use more webs and…”

“And what did you have to do today, Vision?” T’Challa said loudly. He was reclining on one of the beige coloured couches.

Vision, who was behind the bar, looked up from where Tony was trying to teach him how to mix a simple cocktail called a ‘Dirty Martini.’ He blinked once then spoke. “Ah, I was with Miss Romanoff preventing a problematic gang led by one Mr Kuzgro from robbing banks around the city. It was quite uneventful.”

While he didn’t say anything interesting, the others all relaxed more after Peter was stopped from talking at light speed.

Natasha was also reclining on a couch, her head laying on one arm and her feet crossed one over the other, watching with imperceptible amusement as the younger spider finally seemed to have tired himself out. He hadn’t taken a breath in more than a minute and she almost expected him to collapse. She uncrossed her legs as she swiveled off the couch, rising fluidly before walking to him, the slight clicks of her shoes on the ground attracting the others’ attention to her actions.

“Why don’t you have some sleep before you go back to your Aunt May? I’m sure she would love to hear about you helping the world one mission at a time.”

Peter had decided to tell his Aunt about the true identity of Spider-Man after unofficially joining the Avengers for a few months. She had been getting suspicious even with the well-crafted stories by Tony Stark, and it seemed to be the best way to ease her worries. Of course, she was angry and fearful for his safety at first, but telling her about how he fought usually from a distance, had the Avengers’ protection, and was using his powers responsibly calmed her.

“Y-yeah. Yeah, sounds good. I’ll just- I’ll be on the phone in my room if anyone needs me. Night.”

Natasha gave a miniscule twitch of her lips as Peter turned to the elevator and away from the adults. She then returned to her couch amid grateful looks from her fellow Avengers.

 Tony came around the bar after Vision somehow managed to ruin the cocktail for the fifth time in as many minutes, and leaned against a wall.

“Well I for one don’t want anything to happen, not even police work,” he made a pretty good impression of an exasperated teenager, “for at least another month. I swear I am going to sleep for a week and get drunk at parties for the other three, I mean, I’ve been almost completely sober for six days. Six days. It is simply a disaster! Unthinkable! Preposter…” He was interrupted by Friday in the middle of some grand hand gesture.

“Sirs and Miss Romanoff. There are three intruders on the helipad.”

“I think you may have jinxed us Stark.”

“Shut up Nat, not the time.”

Natasha scoffed, muttering, “and I can’t recall a single occasion when you opened your mouth at a time when you shouldn’t have, Tony.”

He ignored her, instead participating in the frenzy of motion from all the Avengers. They started to run down the stairs to their respective rooms. They met with Peter along the way.

“Friday told me there are intruders. Do you need me?”

“Yes, get ready then come back up to us. I’ll meet you all before the hangar door,” said Vision, already prepared with his ability to materialise his gear anytime. The others nodded as they ran.

Tony asked, “Friday, are they armed?”

“Two have knives, sir, and are talking, though they did attack each other before. The third is unconscious. One seems to be similar to a Ch…” the AI paused. “Sirs and Miss Romanoff. There are two intruders on the helipad.”

They each started to race faster when Friday finished.  “What happened to the third?” Asked T’Challa, although they each had a guess.

 “One has been killed.”

“Yeah, everybody suit-… Get the suits.”

******* 

The bare grey walls of the cell faded, and in a fraction of a second, changed to the towering skyline of Manhattan. The previous silence was replaced by the faint sound of various cars honking, and the general bustle of a major city.

The girl immediately dropped to the ground, as she tore her arm from the stunned Chitauri’s grasp, with a small gasp as her injuries were jolted.

Loki let her go gently but quickly before pulling the blade from his side out with another grimace, then striking as fast as a viper at the Chitauri.

The Chitauri only barely turned in time, instead making the blade catch on its armour. Loki moved again, but the Chitauri had recovered from the sudden change of scenery, and raised the knife still in its hands to block, then aimed to injure Loki.

Undaunted, Loki expertly twisted his blade, deflecting the knife heading towards his right arm, and managing to nick the Chitauri’s hand in the process. It hissed as it retracted its arm, but didn’t let go of the knife. Loki stepped forward and to his right so the Chitauri could not easily attack the girl on the ground. He kept his eyes on it as he turned his head and coughed up blood. When he faced it again, his back was curved, unable to straighten completely.

The Chitauri laughed as it realised how close Loki was to joining his companion in unconsciousness. 

“What was your purpose in coming here?” It mocked. “The Master will find you, and capture you, and punish you, just like every other time you’ve tried to escape.” Loki didn’t respond to the taunts, and only locked his jaw, raising both his bound hands together in preparation to fight with the knife. The Chitauri laughed again. “You can barely even stay upright! How about, if you drop the knife and carry that,” it gestured to the girl, “when the others find you, I give you my word that I won’t let either of you be punished for a week.”

Loki swallowed thickly. “Lie,” he stated, then coughed. His eyes narrowed as the Chitauri gave its hideous version of a smile.

“Ah, so the little lie detector tries to still be strong. I know how much you must long for a week without any pain, but we both know that you deserve it. He warned you, after all, what would happen to you both if you failed.” It closed its eyes for a second as it gave its mocking laugh a final time.

One second was all he needed. Loki struck in its moment of too much confidence, aiming for the one uncovered place that would result in a fatal wound. He quickly stepped back out of reach of the Chitauri’s wavering knife, now with his blade buried to the hilt in its jugular.

It gurgled, then fell to the ground.

After making sure it was dead, Loki turned and moved back to his companion. The continued blood loss, as well as the magic drain required to teleport, made him unsteady, and he fell to his knees next to her with little of his usual grace.

She was already unconscious, but he whispered to her anyway, taking laboured breaths between each sentence.

“It’s dead. We escaped. We’re safe.”

He looked her over to see if any of her wounds had opened again.  Only the cut on her neck from the Chitauri was bleeding, but the flow was already slowing and clotting. He then attended to his own stab wound, putting pressure on it and holding the ragged lips near each other until his advanced healing knitted them together in a rudimentary clot, stopping the risk of bleeding out completely.

As he did this, there was the faint sound of rushed footsteps. He looked up, and the last thing he saw as he pitched forward onto his uninjured side was the Avengers racing out of the hangar door, slowing to a stop when they got closer. His vision then went dark.

Chapter Text

Tony’s POV

To my left I heard Peter dry retching. I felt like doing the same, but I knew from experience that throwing up in the suit is 1. Not Pleasant, with capitals N and P, and 2. A horror to clean up. Nevertheless, the sight that beheld us was not a pretty one.

There was a Chitauri on the ground a couple of yards away. It was obviously dead, a knife of some sort embedded in its neck, the wound still oozing the black sludge that was the Chitauri’s blood. Its hand and a patch on its leg, though, were covered in red. It was obviously larger than the ones we faced in the Battle of New York, and had more armour, but I dismissed the corpse and turned to the alive intruders.

The two figures were closer, both on their sides and now unconscious, though the male was awake for a second when we first came. There were metal shackles around both of their wrists, restrained in the front, and as I examined them, I noticed they had engravings around them, and also that the girl was wearing a gold ring, with a small tear-shaped ruby embedded into the metal, on the middle finger of her right hand. The male was tall, and, though this could be from the many layers of dirt, had dark, messy hair that came below his shoulders. He looked pale skinned but it was hard to tell. The only clothes he wore were black pants with threads of red through them, coming down above the knee. They didn’t seem to be made from any fabric, or anything else I recognised.

His body was a mess. Not only was he slightly emaciated, but on his arms, legs, back, and torso there were multiple horrific wounds. Long and deep cuts, severe bruising, nasty-looking scars, stab wounds, one of which was recent with small rivulets of blood sluggishly flowing across his side, and even bites from large, sharp teeth. In places, some flesh was missing, while in others the skin seemed to have been pulled back exposing raw muscle. Most wounds had either closed or scarred around the edges. I didn’t examine them for very long.

The girl had much the same injuries, though she was more severely emaciated, the bones showing prominently beneath her skin. Looking at her, she couldn’t have been older than about 16. Her hair was also covered in grime, and so was difficult to attribute a particular shade, though it seemed a dark red. It reached down to her hip, but was completely matted.

She wore mini-shorts and a sleeveless crop top, made of the same black and red substance as the male’s pants. The top had thick straps around her lower back and shoulders, leaving most of her back exposed. It was almost as if something was missing.

Strangely, there were two matching raised lines of skin close on either side of her spine, about a quarter of an inch thick, starting near the top of and continuing to just below her shoulder blades. They looked like old scars.

That wasn’t the worst of it though. Further from her spine, beside the raised lines, a tip of each rib was protruding from her skin, so it looked almost like a mockery of short wings. Every single one was broken and jagged.

“Who…what…who would do this?” Peter was still retching, but managed to stutter out the sentence we were all thinking.

“Tony, are they still alive?” That was Natasha. Even the assassin wasn’t unaffected by the sight. Her face was blank, but the tendons in her neck were held tighter than normal.

“Uh…let me scan.” My own voice sounded distant.

“Both are unconscious and weak, but they are breathing, though shallowly, and their hearts beat steady.”

“Yeah. They are. Somehow. Hey Peter and Vision, can you get two trolley tables from the infirmary up here in the elevator? And T’Challa, get Helen to the infirmary and help her prepare what she will need.”

“Certainly. Come, Peter.” The two of them floated or swung back inside, and T’Challa gave a small nod then walked off.

Once they were gone, Natasha murmured, “Tony? I can’t be certain under all the grime, but the male looks like Loki.”

“Didn’t Thor tell us he died?”

“Just look.” I moved closer to where she was so I could see, and then scrutinised his face. He was gaunt and the dirt made his skin grey and black, but sure enough, the resemblance was uncanny.

Actually no, it was definitely Loki.

“Ah, shit.”

*******

 Peter and Vision came back with trolleys after a few minutes. Natasha and I were still yelling at each other. Or more, I was yelling and she was talking to me like I was an idiot.

Which I’m not.

“Nat, he threw me out a window. That window. Right there. He killed more than 80 people in two days, forced Clint to kill innocents and other agents, threatened you, released the Hulk on the helicarrier, and brought an army of aliens to conquer the Earth. We should kill him now, or at least not help him. He can die of his injuries and no one will know any better.”

“Tony. Thor told us about that Heimdall person who can see everything. He probably already knows Loki’s here, and will send Thor to us to figure out what to do with him. If we kill Loki now, we might start war with Asgard, or at the very least Thor will never forgive us.”

“So what do we do with him? I’m not having a psycho god who tried to destroy the planet in our tower! He’ll kill us in our sleep!”

“Tony, look at him. He couldn’t even stay conscious, and he obviously saw us before he passed out. I’m not saying just leave him unattended. Keep him heavily sedated, restrained with more than just the cuffs on him now, and watched by one of us or Friday at all times.”

I paused as I considered her words. She made sense, but I still wasn’t happy about it. I mean, psycho god and all.

“Fine, but what about the girl?”

She thought for a second. “Sedate her too. Any friend of Loki’s is not a friend of ours. She might be Asgardian as well, but as of yet we don’t know her loyalties. Better for us to play it safe.”

“Alright.” I turned to Peter and Vision, who were awkwardly loitering near the hangar door. “Bring those over here, then help me lift these two onto them. Don’t make their injuries worse if you can help it, as we don’t want to potentially anger Thor or the other space warriors more than we have to.”

It was a struggle to get them on the trolley beds. The girl was lightweight, in fact it was scary how light she was, no more than 55 pounds. To be honest, I didn’t know how she was still alive. The difficulty was finding places to lift her without touching any of her ribs or other wounds.

Though not to the same extent, this difficulty was also present with Loki, as well as the fact that Asgardians are so much denser than a human. At least he didn’t weigh as much as Thor. (We knew this as once Thor brought mead from Asgard. Apparently, our alcohol is too weak, and when he had his at a party, he got so drunk he passed out.)

Once they were on, we went down towards the infirmary to Helen.

*******

NPOV

“I can’t sedate him with an IV. No needle we have will pierce his skin, and the access will be unable to administer the drug. He will have to have oral drugs regularly for as long as it takes Thor to come. Whoever watches them will need to give him one of these,” she held up one of many drug solutions she had asked Friday and T’Challa to help her prepare, “every 3 hours. Friday will tell you when each one is due.” She looked around at the New Avengers in the infirmary.

They nodded in understanding, and Tony made a small hum, then asked, “and the girl? There’s no IV on her either.”

Helen took a breath. “I can’t sedate her at all.”

“What!? Why not?”

“I’ll show you.” She turned and walked toward the bed close to them, where the girl lay on her right side, hands still shackled together but near her head to take pressure off her back. Helen then took a small needle from beside the bed. “Watch.”

She let the needle pierce the skin of the girl’s upper left arm, then quickly withdrew it. Blood welled up, but it was not quite red.

They all stared. Her blood was a dark gold-red colour, and clotted quickly.

Helen then pierced the skin again in another place, and let go of the needle. About five seconds after the blood touched the metal, the needle glowed red and melted completely, leaving some beneath the skin. This was rapidly forced out, trickling down her arm until Helen wiped it up with a cloth. She quickly dropped the cloth in the nearby sink and ran cold water over it, as it had started to smoke. 

 She turned and spoke as she made her way back to us. “Everything I try melts. I assume it would form a temporary blockage in a major wound, so she doesn’t bleed out even if she should be fatally wounded. Unfortunately, even orally administered drugs don’t work. I don’t know how, though I think it has to be magic, but it is almost burned out of her system. Surprisingly though, her blood is not hot to touch. I got some on my gloves when removing a thicker needle, but it acted like human blood still.”

Everyone was still looking wide-eyed, but T’Challa recovered first.

“Who will watch them now? If the girl is not sedated at all, she will wake up eventually.”

“Yes, but I doubt she will wake before morning, so I want all of you to go to sleep and we’ll make a proper roster when you wake up. Friday can watch them both for now in case their condition worsens, and she will wake me for the next two solutions when they are needed.” said Helen.

The others nodded agreement as they filtered out. Natasha walked back to her room then said to the ceiling, “Friday? Wake me up first if she stirs okay?”

“Of course, Miss Romanoff. Goodnight.”

“Night Friday.”

Chapter Text

Girl’s POV

I woke up slowly, keeping my breathing and heart rate as steady as possible, and eyes closed. I wasn’t yet sure if I was alone, or if I was with someone hostile. Considering where I was and who I came with, that wouldn’t be very surprising.

I could feel the shackles still on my wrists, and some new straps around my legs. They stopped me from rolling off of my side, but they would be easy to get off.

Another group that thinks I’m useless just because I’m injured. Great, this’ll be simple.

I could only hear one person other than me breathing. It was very slow, slower than it would have been even if they were just asleep, so they had probably sedated Loki somehow, as we had suspected they would. Although there seemed to be no one watching us, more than likely the AI in the tower was anyway.

I would have to make this quick as possible, preferably without hurting myself any more.

I pushed with my arms until I was upright. This made my back twinge a bit, but for now it was okay. Next, I undid the straps around my legs, then looked around for Loki. He was in the bed next to mine, and no more injured than he was when we left, though he did have more restraints around his ankles, wrists, and torso.

Still, we had escaped. That thought was such a relief, and this time we were somewhere that, with any hope, we could recover fully and then stay escaped for more than three months.

I scanned the room I found myself in. It looked like an infirmary with the beds and medical tools scattered around, I just hoped it had what I was looking for.

There!

On the wall about 8 metres away from my bed was a sink, and in the sink were two cloths. I needed something mostly hard, but slightly squishy, and they would be perfect when rolled up. Now the only difficulty was getting to them before anyone came.

I directed the small amount of magic I had recovered since the Chitauri had released the binding on Loki’s collar to my legs, to start to heal the worst of the wounds there. The most pressing was a previously broken bone in my lower left leg, which I hadn’t allowed to heal to save magic for the escape. I broke it again with magic so it could align properly, then used my dwindling reserve to heal it. The most I could do was steady it so it wouldn’t break further, but it would do for now.

Able to put some weight on it, I swung off the bed gently, then stood, using both hands to push on the bed to stay upright. Then I started a half shuffle half walk to get to the sink. I leaned on different things on the way; a bench, another bed, and a little metal wheelie table that I used for the rest of the distance.

I grabbed the cloths, then twisted them to wring any water out. I used the wheelie table to get back to my bed, when I heard someone walking down the hall. They were very soft footfalls, probably barefoot, but I could still hear them. After all, they were only mortal, and I was now almost always able to hear Loki, even when he’s trying to sneak up on me.

I made a bit more noise to make them believe I hadn’t heard them, including a whisper of ‘damn’ when I hit the table against the leg of another.

I reached my bed, and sat down on the edge. I rolled the now mostly dry cloths into tight balls, then stuck them in a certain spot under each arm, keeping them tight against my chest. It was a little difficult to get them there because of the shackles, but with any luck those wouldn’t be a problem much longer. I put my hands in my lap and waited, facing the door.

Romanoff walked in slowly, halting when we made eye contact. She wore pyjamas made out of thin black material, that unashamedly clung to her figure and was slightly, but not overly, revealing. From the bunching at her waist, she probably had a gun hastily tucked in the back of her pants, and there was room for at least one pocket with a hidden bladed weapon at her sides.

I stared at her as she started moving again toward me. I could feel the circulation in my arms stopping, as they were starting to go numb, but I still needed more time. I’d have to stall, and I could give her some food for thought as well.

“Thank you,” I said. My voice rasped noticeably when I spoke above a whisper. The Chitauri were not caring captors, and I didn’t even know the last time I had drunk any substantial amount of water. I should have taken some from the sink when I had the chance, I thought.

She faltered slightly when I spoke, then stopped as she heard what I said.

“Why do you thank me?”

“You didn’t kill Loki, even though you had every right to. I thank you as well, Stark.” Two others had since been warned I was awake, and had come. Behind Romanoff, waiting at the door, there was Stark, and a dark-skinned man with short black hair. Stark was hurriedly dressed in a crinkled shirt and pants, while the other was neater in his appearance. No others came.

He must be new. I don’t recognise him.

I nodded to them. They each looked warily at me. I decided to try for a bit of pity-play, so I looked down at my hands as I said, “you don’t know how long we’ve been waiting to escape from them. It may have only been a couple of months for you since Thor would have told you Loki died, but for us it’s…”

“Stop. What are you doing with the cloths?” Romanoff interrupted me.

I smiled slightly with my head still down. “Not fooled? Ah, well, I guess you do have little reason to believe anything I say.” I looked back up then, serious. “I’m trying to get these shackles off. They only stay on alive prisoners, so as to tell my captor if I had died of my injuries or not. If I can convince the shackles that I am dead, they will release me.”

“And how will cloths help?” Stark this time. I looked to him now.

Perfect, they were giving me reasons to stall further. “It is a time old trick to weaken the pulse in the wrist so it can’t be felt by cutting off the circulation in the arms. The BBC Sherlock series is only one of the most recent to use this fact. A small ball of resin would have been one of the best things to use, but dry cloths work fine.”

Stark spoke again. “Why didn’t you do this before, then, if it’s so easy?”

“Because the only time they put these on us was when they were taking us somewhere out of our cell. Then they would watch us for any ‘trickery’.” Under my breath I added, “they have much more effective ways of limiting magic than these.”

The other man then asked “and who is they?” and did this feel like an interrogation or what?

“The Chitauri of course! Did you miss the guard that Loki killed when we came through?” I hadn’t seen, but I assumed he killed it like we planned. I doubted any of the Avengers were close enough to when we arrived.

At that moment, the shackles made a series of loud clicks, then fell silent. I felt two bolts of electricity flow through me, as it tried to ‘restart’ my heart. I twitched involuntarily, and the Avengers looked alarmed, but it didn’t hurt me much at all.

I fought to keep the excited grin off my face, but failed spectacularly as after a few more seconds the clasp melted back into view then undid itself. They dropped into my lap, and as they did I lifted my arms slightly to let the cloths fall as well. My arms would start getting pins and needles soon, but I didn’t care.

I let out a contented sigh as my magic could finally start recovering as it should, and I knew I could now use it for more than just healing Loki or myself. After so long with it restrained in some way, it was heaven to be free.

I picked up the shackles in my hand. My fingers were still tingling as the circulation came back, but I ignored it. I’d suffered much worse. I glared down at the shackles, and even though it was a waste of my magic, I reached my arm out away from my body, then I made the metal rapidly increase in temperature until it glowed red-hot and melted, dripping off my hand to form a puddle on the floor.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for so long.” I looked at the Avengers again. They had all come closer, into a line. Romanoff had drawn the gun, and Stark had an Iron Man glove on, now aiming at me, while the dark-skinned man went into a defensive stance. “Oh, relax, I’m not going to attack. I’m tired now so I actually feel like sleeping. If you don’t mind…” I gave a pointed look toward the door. This movement made my head spin suddenly, and I swayed a bit.

The first to move was the man I didn’t know, and he caught me before I fell forward off the bed, gently holding my upper arms. “Thanks,” I muttered sleepily.

He gave a regal nod in recognition, then helped me swing my legs on the bed, avoiding the molten metal. He seemed to know I was about to pass out. I asked one last thing.

“What’s your name?” He looked slightly surprised, as if I should already know.

“I am T’Challa, miss. And who are you?”

“Flare. My name’s Flare.” I murmured, and although I really didn’t want to, then promptly fell asleep.

******* 

Tony’s POV

The three of us stared at each other after T’Challa had helped the girl, Flare, we now knew, rest back against the pillow in a comfortable position. None of us had any idea what to do. 

“Hey Friday, can you grab Helen?”

“I have already woken her, sir. She is coming into the hall outside the infirmary now.”

We then heard the sound of her heels on the floor before she walked in, already in her medical shift. I don’t know how the girls in this tower always seemed to be able to get up and within a minute be ready to go. Aren’t girls supposed to take ages? I was only in a hastily thrown-together casual outfit of an AC-DC t-shirt and black pants, and that took me three minutes to find, with help from Friday. (I hate unexpected wake up calls, okay? Who doesn’t?)

“What happened? Friday told me the girl woke up.” Helen said when she entered.

“She did. She managed to get those shackles off herself as well, before she melted them in her hand, the puddle’s down there…” I couldn’t help but try to fluster her.

“What?”

“Oh, and we learned her name is Flare.”

“She just melted them?”

“Yeah, in her hands. She glared at them and they grew red-hot. Didn’t even burn her.”

“I believe you were right in saying she has magic, Helen." Natasha explained, giving me a disapproving look for alarming the geneticist. “Her blood may be a different colour because she’s from one of the other realms Thor mentioned, but this is definitely something else. While she was awake, Flare said that the shackles she had on restrained magic, so Loki must be unable to use his until he gets them off, too.”

Helen looked at her, nodding. “That’s good at least. It is almost time for his next dose anyway. I’ll give it to him now, and I’ll take first watch for the girl. Flare.”

“I can take over tomorrow for a few hours,” said Natasha as she walked out. “Have Friday wake me when you start to get tired.”

“Thanks Natasha. I’ll see you in the morning.”

There was a chorus of goodnights, then they each moved out the door and headed for their respective rooms.

Chapter Text

Tony’s POV

“She barely stirred at all while I was here, and Helen said the same when she woke me.” T’Challa, Peter, and I had just entered the infirmary where Natasha was still on watch after the night before. We sat in various chairs or on benches around the room. “The most she’s done is grimace or twitch her hands slightly, but nothing more,” Nat informed us from where she sat nearest the beds.

“That’s some good news at least,” I said, while T’Challa and Peter nodded in agreement.

“Where’s Vis?”

“There was another altercation in the city that we were asked to sort out, but it only required one person, and Vision volunteered, since he has the least personal connection to the Loki debacle,” T’Challa answered.

“More police work?”

“Yes.”

“That’s fine. We can work out a roster without him being here. So, who wants to watch them next?”

The next half hour was us making a proper roster for the next four days. We probably wouldn’t need that many as Thor should be coming soon, but nobody wanted to have to do this again.

*******

It was an hour before the end of my watch that Flare woke up again. Her twitches and winces were still infrequent, but during T'Challa's watch before mine, these had become more pronounced.  He had warned me of the change, and it had continued for my watch as well, but of course it was a shock when I looked up briefly from my holographic improvement plans for the suit to find her sitting on the edge of Loki’s bed. She hadn’t made a sound. I quickly activated the watch that rapidly formed into an Iron Man gauntlet and pointed the charged palm at her.

“I promise I am not doing anything nefarious, Stark. You can put the glove down.” She said, still facing away from me and blocking her actions from view.

“Yeah, somehow I have a hard time believing you. I won’t let you do your hocus-pocus to wake him up.”

She turned around as I finished speaking, and tilted her head a bit, contemplating something. Abruptly, she made a decision and went back to Loki.

“You are welcome to come and see what I am doing, if you wish.”

I moved cautiously around the room, keeping the gauntlet aimed at her, until I was able to see them both.

Loki was still unconscious, and had the shackles on too, but there was a white glowing light emitting from Flare’s palms. She held her hands just over the stab wound on Loki’s side. It had healed a bit from the day before, much faster than a human wound would, but was still very deep. As I watched, the dirt in and around it cleared and fell to the bed, and then it started to close. Within seconds, there was no sign of the previous injury. She then moved onto the most serious of the missing flesh or peeled skin wounds. For these, however, the glow was much fainter.

It was quite amazing to watch, and I wondered how she did it. Was she just speeding up the healing process, or something else entirely? I looked at her face, and noticed she was mouthing something, but I couldn’t hear what it was. She also appeared to be in deep concentration.

She healed three more, before she moved to sit on her own bed. Then she focused on some of her wounds, mainly on her legs, and did the same process with the even-fainter white light and muttered words. She grew steadily more exhausted as she went.

“Why don’t you heal your ribs?” I asked, as I thought those would bother her most.

“I used too much energy on Loki. I’d only be able to half heal them, which would put me in more discomfort than I am now. I’ll need someone else’s help to align them properly anyway.” She then looked up from her work to meet my eyes, and hesitated slightly before asking something completely unrelated. “Do you have somewhere I can get this dirt off me?”

I blinked in surprise, but could understand why she asked. She was covered in it from head to toe, and it couldn’t possibly be comfortable.

“Couldn’t you just magic it away like when you were healing?”

“I needed to move some to heal the wounds, but to remove it from me would be a waste of magic. It would take more energy than if I simply had a shower. So, can I have one?”

“Uh, yeah? Friday, could you get Natasha down here?”

“Certainly, sir.”

I watched Flare carefully while Friday spoke, as Thor had jumped and nearly smashed a table the first time he heard Jarvis, but she didn’t react at all. Just gave a smile in my direction to say thank you. She then leaned back on one arm and closed her eyes. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed.

Nat came in about a minute later, and I told her what Flare had asked just outside the door to the infirmary.

“Are you willing to watch to make sure she doesn’t try to escape or anything?”

“Of course. I doubt she’ll try as Loki is still sedated, but I can stay anyway.”

Nat went into the infirmary, and spoke to Flare for a second. To my surprise, Flare managed to stand and walk by herself, though stepping gingerly so she didn’t jolt anything, in front of Nat, who then started to show her the way to the nearest bathroom.

*******

Flare’s POV
 

The feeling of clean, hot water was almost as heavenly as getting those shackles off. I had the shower on gently so I wouldn’t aggravate my wounds too much, but it still was able to get the dirt off me. 

I had kept on my limited clothing, as Romanoff was sitting in the corner of the bathroom, sharpening knives and cleaning guns. The clothes wouldn't be damaged by the water, and they wouldn’t take long to dry either. I could also wash the dirt off them at the same time.

There was some shampoo and conditioner in the shower, and I decided I wanted to wash my hair. It was so matted though that I’d have to cut a lot of it off.

“Ms. Romanoff?” I called.

“Mmm.” She replied, without looking up.

“Can I borrow a knife to cut my hair? I want to wash it but it’s just one big knot.”

She looked up assessing whether she could trust me with a knife. She got up and came closer. “Would you like any help?”

I felt a bit uncomfortable having someone I didn’t know at my back, but as I had told her on our first meeting, I owed her. She hadn’t killed Loki, and as of yet she had no reason to hurt me. I hoped. I nodded, then turned off the water so she wouldn’t get wet.

“How long do you want it?”

“It’ll be a bit longer when I brush it properly, so about halfway down my upper arm? Perhaps a little longer actually.”

She touched me briefly on the arm at the length she was going to cut, and I said, “yeah, that’s good.”

Taking the knife, she cut it gradually to keep it straight. It didn’t take long, and when she was done I helped her gather the hair up so she could put it in the bin in the corner.

“Thank you,” I said earnestly as she washed her hands and sat back down. Her lips twitched, which I guessed was her equivalent of a smile. It reminded me of Loki’s, though she’d probably find it an insult if I told her so.

When I got back in the shower, I picked up the shampoo and conditioner and washed my hair properly, running my fingers through the bottom to get some of the knots out. As it straightened, it became uneven, but I would ask her for help again later, possibly, if we hadn’t already left. The products smelled like mint, but it wasn’t overly strong. I liked it, but knew it soon wouldn’t matter.

The water at my feet had started by running black, but it was now clearing as the amount of dirt lessened.

Once the water was running completely clear down the drain, I turned it off, making Romanoff look up. She threw me a towel from the rack beside her, and I caught it before drying most of the water. The droplets under my clothes and my wet hair would evaporate soon enough. When I was dry, Romanoff turned her back to me and began to lead the way to the infirmary. She seemed to know I wouldn’t attack her.

The heat of the water and the new clean feeling had helped revitalise me, so I opened my dimensional pocket as Loki had shown me ages ago, then grabbed a black open-backed shirt with short sleeves, and loose long pants of the same colour onto me. It barely took any magic, as I was effectively just ‘reaching in’ to a closet, so I thought it was worth it. When Romanoff next looked behind her, she shrugged casually at the new outfit, as if to say ‘I already know you have magic. You aren’t going to surprise me by doing that.’ I could see why Loki respected her even after so little contact.

As soon as we entered the infirmary again, I went back to Loki’s side. I could at least try to stay awake now until his sedative wore off, and then we would only sleep one at a time until our magic recovered to a substantial level. I doubted the Avengers would hurt Loki, but this was our best chance to stay free, and I wasn’t about to make a careless mistake that would cost us that freedom.

Romanoff walked over to Stark, and started a quiet discussion. I didn’t think they knew I had more advanced senses than a human, and so could hear them talking, but through my magic I was aware they were still watching me, so I began pushing my bed closer to Loki’s while I listened. The scraping made it harder to hear, but I lifted the bed some so it was quieter.

“Where did she get the new clothing from?” asked Stark.

“She materialised them, like Loki did in Stuttgart. She’s done nothing else though. I did help her cut her hair as well, and she seems more comfortable around me now.” Romanoff replied.

“Mmhm. That’s good I guess. It’s nearly Vision’s turn to take over, Friday’s already called him so he should be here soon. Friday also suggested that we should get Flare some food, so you stay here and I’ll find something.”

I wonder who this Vision is. He must be new, like T’Challa. I also wonder where the rest are?

Romanoff shrugged and went back to the chair in the corner, getting out her knives again. I sat on my bed and waited for Stark to come back with food.

I hope he brings something with sugar. I haven’t had anything sweet in ages. Meat would also be nice, though it might make me throw up. In fact, to be honest I shouldn’t really have anything too thick. Oh well, as long as he gives me something I’ll be happy.

Romanoff started a conversation. Without looking up, she inquired, “is that your natural hair colour?” I don’t know why she of all people would be asking this, but I could see no reason not to answer.

“Yes. Apparently, it’s part of why I was named Flare.”

And anyone could see why. Now that the dirt was gone, it was a chaotic mess of different reds, with streaks of yellow and orange blending in. To a human here, it would of course be impossible to have as a natural hair colour, but it wasn’t even close to what counted as ‘weird’ where I came from.

Natasha nodded, as if she already suspected it. Being a spy/assassin, I suppose she’d know very well how to identify natural hair from fake.

Smart, she’s trying to see if I would lie. I passed a test I didn’t know I was given, I guess.

Stark entered again shortly after, with some steaming soup. It smelled really good, and I muttered a quick thank you before I started eating. At first, I went way too fast, so I slowed down to stop myself from being sick later.

“How long has it been since you last ate?” Stark asked. Obviously I was still eating faster than I thought.

Between mouthfuls, I said, “Haven’t eaten at all, for a bit over a year. Haven’t eaten properly, for close to 14.” I glanced up to see both of them staring at me disbelievingly, which was understandable as, not only did I only look 16, but I should be dead a hundred times over. “I’m not lying. Both Loki and I can last far longer than a human, or most Asgardians, without food, water or even air. Our magic keeps us alive. Loki ate more recently than me though. When he came here, and when he was in Asgard.” I had now finished the soup, and looked at the empty bowl forlornly. “Lucky snake got to eat and drink from bowls and mugs enchanted to never run out,” I added, before putting the bowl down.

They still looked doubtful, and it probably wasn’t overly smart to remind them of the last time they saw Loki, but they didn’t have to believe my story to make it truth.

My magic had recovered quite well after my long sleep, hot shower, and nice food, so I turned and gestured with a hand in Loki’s direction. The restraints the Avengers put on him snapped. I was unable to use magic on the shackles to get them off, unfortunately.

Loki had stored the clothes he wore when in Asgardian prison, so I also grabbed those for him. I had already managed to heal most of his worst wounds, so the clothes wouldn’t damage anything too much.

Stark was looking warily at me, but Romanoff completely ignored the gesture. Yes, I decided I liked her.

At that moment, I heard a single pair of footsteps coming down the hall. I reached out my senses, and felt a strangely familiar and unfamiliar magic presence.

Romanoff and Stark could see further down the hall than from where I was sitting, and they smiled at the newcomer, this ‘Vision,’ before he came in.

“Hey, Vis. Ready to watch these two for a…”

As soon as I caught sight of it, I let out a primal growl, and felt the skin on my back tear.

In the back of my mind I thought, so glad I chose the backless shirt.

The rest of me was focused on the red and silver being, with the yellow gem in his forehead…

I was looking at yellow… but all I could see was an invading blue.

Chapter Text

Flare’s POV, past

They had kept Loki and I separate for a week before they brought him back, practically throwing him into the cell. I had been left alone for this time, a respite from the regular schedule.

This was almost worse though, as I knew they were focusing solely on Loki. I could only imagine what they were doing to him, but they were still trying to break him, for certain. And I hadn’t been there. I wasn’t even able to sense him anywhere near.

With the limited strength I had, I brought Loki away from the door, and near the back of our cell, where we normally treated our injuries. It was covered in splatters of Loki’s red and my dark red-gold blood already, but it kept our self-dubbed ‘sleeping corner’ cleaner.

“Loki? Loki, I’m here. What did they do? Tell me so I can heal you.” I had barely spoken in the week alone, but while the Chitauri were still around, I wasn’t going to communicate mentally. “Come on, serpent. We’re both still alive yet.” I then said in my own language, “we can both still escape.”

His body temperature was far too high, and he was covered in burns and drenched with sweat. The bastards probably put him in a magma chamber again. He was definitely suffering from extreme heat exposure, and that was about the only way they could have caused such a severe reaction from his Asgardian body. I was thankful they didn’t know the truth of his heritage, or they would have forced him to change to his Jotun form and stay that way, which would have made it so much worse.

The Chitauri were still outside our cell, which was strange. Usually they went back to their miserable lives as soon as the engraved bars crashed into place. It was like they were waiting for something. I felt a foreboding shiver run down my spine and looked back to Loki.

He groaned slightly as he regained consciousness. The Chitauri focused and leaned in a bit, making the clicks of their language to each other, though too quietly for me to understand. They were also staring at Loki intently.

My heart was now strongly thumping in my chest. “Loki?” I asked tentatively.

He froze for a second, then stood, his head down with dirty black hair covering his face. He emitted a dark, chilling laugh. I backed away from him quickly, then realised I had moved straight into the corner instinctually, and there were now solid, magic-resistant walls behind and to the sides of me. Stupid! Now I had nowhere to go for…whatever was coming (not that I had many options anyway). I looked to Loki. When he raised his head, I stifled a gasp.

His eyes were not the beautiful, pure emerald green I had become so used to after seeing them every day for what was, for us, about four years.

They were an electric blue, and so, so cold.

I knew what they had done immediately.

“No.” I whispered. “Loki, they…they didn’t.” I was aware they had been trying to break him. I never thought they would succeed.

I wasn’t there. I couldn’t protect him. And now his mind was under the control of that infernal gem, and its master.

“Do you like what I’ve done?” Speaking of…

I glanced back to the bars, where a hulking purple figure dressed in gold now stood, smirking mockingly at me, posture broad and confident.

“Not particularly.” I chastised myself internally when I heard my voice shake.

“Show respect, my pet.”

I gritted my teeth as I said, “Not particularly, Than-. Master.” I greatly over-exaggerated the pronunciation, spitting the consonants. I decided against saying his name as I normally would though. He had complete command of Loki, and antagonising him now would not be smart.

The smirk only grew wider, and he lazily gestured with a hand. I looked back to Loki, who was now gracefully and leisurely stalking in a curve, like a panther hunting prey that it knew could not escape. He didn’t come any closer, but his blue eyes glowed.

“He’s completely under my control now. Your resistance for so many years has been admirable, but futile. It is a shame I couldn’t have the two Sky-Treaders under my command, but one is enough for my early plans to come to fruition. Of course, I will need to change some aspects of the gem’s influence before then, but until that time,” the smile became filled with venom, “I believe that I have been a bit negligent toward you, girl. After a week without our usual meetings, I think you might be getting too used to the break. Should we remedy that?” He paused, in the way villains often do, for dramatic effect. Even as far as he was from where I stood, I could clearly see his eyes glint in satisfaction as he simply said, “Loki.”

Loki inclined his head. As he continued his stalking, now slowly coming nearer, I tried to find a way to unravel the mental tendrils of blue that ensnared his mind, but there was no way I could quickly do so without permanently damaging Loki. I had little hope in my last resort, but tried anyway. I didn’t care that Thanos was still watching.

“Loki? Loki, please. Fight back, I know you can. You’re still the strongest person I know. Please, Loki.” There was no reaction in Loki’s face, or his magic that connected to mine.

I ran for the middle of the cell when Loki came within two metres of me, to try and delay the inevitable. For all my speed, I was exhausted, and my use of magic was restricted by some bands they had left on my wrists before they separated us. Loki was now so much stronger, and I realised that his magic was free; there was no reason for it to be restrained while the sceptre held him. He caught me by the neck in one hand, and kicked the back of my knees.

Thanos laughed as my legs buckled. Loki held me up off the ground, his eyes filled with a chilling malice he would never otherwise express.

I whispered his name once more, before green magic tinged with blue flared, and the pain started.

*******

Natasha’s POV

I admit I jumped when I heard the animalistic growl from behind me. We all did, it was so unexpected. When we turned, we were presented with an even more shocking sight.

Two curved and overlapping barriers had appeared between the three of us, and Flare and Loki. They were solid, but had flickers of fire racing along the surface. I tried to see where they came from, and was surprised to find that they ended behind Flare.

Observing for a second longer, I realised they were wings. Very large ones. They had an opaque membrane, and long ridges across the top and in fingers to the edges like a bat’s wing. Unlike a bat, they were covered in tiny scales, that when moved slightly, shimmered in a mix of warm colours not unlike Flare’s hair. There was also a wicked claw at the top of each wing, though black rather than the expected ivory.

Now, I know I should have been surprised, but really, so much had happened to me in my life, especially in the last few years, that not much could shock me anymore. Magic and monsters, aliens, apparently the gods exist, Wanda has red magic that could reach into peoples’ minds, Super Soldiers were alive from World War II, and Flare had real wings. I mean, why not?

Red gold drops of blood started dripping onto the floor behind Flare. Her ribs must have been moved by the wings, but she didn’t seem to either notice or care.

Flare herself was standing in front of the beds in a defensive position. Her hands and arms also had flames licking along them. Her eyes were blown wide, and I noticed they were a deep blue-green colour, with a literal fire burning in them, red and gold flecks reflecting in the irises. She was breathing heavily like she had sprinted a mile. She looked unfocused, as if remembering something, but snapped back quickly and stared at…

At Vision.

“Get that, away from me.” Tony, Vision, and I had frozen, and didn’t react. She spoke again in a quiet but strong voice, breaths breaking her words. “Do not bring it, any closer.” The flames swelled, but although they were very close, I didn’t feel any heat from them.

I couldn’t understand why she seemed so scared of Vision. He had only walked into the room, and they had never met before.

I slowly reached for a gun hidden in a waist pocket, and saw Tony also reaching for his watch containing a gauntlet. Flare’s eyes flicked slightly, she otherwise didn’t move, but my gun was wrenched out of my grasp, while Tony's watch undid itself and flew next to gun, hovering in the air in front of us.

When each of us took an instinctive step forward as if an actual enemy had taken the weapons, they both melted instantly and Flare growled again, her wings moving to point the claws threateningly. The wings took up the space of about half the room, and were now emitting a slight heat.

Tony, in his state of shock, took another step, and I felt a minimal pressure in my head.

‘Get away from him!’

The words were still quiet, but seemed to pound into my mind, and if the slight flinch from the others was any indicator, they heard it too.

Thing was, Flare’s lips hadn’t moved.

While I was observing her face, I realised she was not just looking at Vision, but at his forehead, where rested…

“The mind gem. Vision, she’s looking at the mind gem,” I said from the corner of my mouth. Tony turned his head to look at me, but Vision’s eyes also widened, and he backed carefully out of the room, hands in plain sight.

A minute after he left, the heat disappeared, and the two newly melted puddles suddenly stopped glowing red-hot. The floor was smouldering. The flames along Flare’s body also stopped, but the sound of her heavy breathing remained in the room.

The claws retracted into the scaled ridge of the wings as they closed, and she folded them to rest loosely against her back. The tips came level to her head, and went down to almost reach her ankles. She cut a deadly and imposing image, for one who looked so young and wary. Her head lowered and her body turned slightly away from us, but I could tell she was watching even so.

Tony was still in shock. Diffusing the situation would be up to me.

At least part of the situation had become very clear to me. “Flare, he’s gone. Vision’s gone. He’s not just the mind gem, he is a person now, and I promise he won’t hurt you. Or Loki,” I tacked on as an afterthought.

There was silence for a few seconds, then, “I believe you.” She whispered. “I’m a fool but I believe you. I just…I thought it was out of our lives, once it was taken from Loki. I thought I would never see it again.” Her eyes shot up to mine. “Please, I know I have no right to demand things from you, but please, keep it. Him. Away from Loki and me for a while.” Her eyes dropped again. “I believe you that it. He. Will not hurt me, but the gem has caused me so much pain, and I never want to see Loki’s eyes…” She cut off then, and glanced at me. Then she sighed and slowed her breathing until it was back under control. Her blood kept dripping, and she finally noticed the growing pool.

She sighed again, more irritated this time, and partially unfurled her right wing, turning to heal the bleed, then the left side.

She swayed on her feet once she finished, and so sat on the bed, muttering, “I should not have done that. They would’ve clotted soon enough.” She looked even more exhausted than before.

“You should go to sleep.”

She gave a sad little laugh. “I won’t be able to,” and I understood what she meant, God, I understood what she meant. From her look before, she’d be fighting suppressed memories in her nightmares for days.

“Do you have any more food I can eat? I used way too much magic, and I don’t want to have to sleep.”

Tony had recovered, and said, “So what do you want? Insects for the bat-girl? Heh. Bat-girl. Or more soup.”

I felt like elbowing him, but Flare just smiled. “The soup was delicious, so if you have more, that would be nice. Two bowls would be even better.”

“Sure. By the way, when I come back, I want to talk to you about where those,” he pointed to the wings that draped over the bed, “came from, and how you…spoke without speaking?”

“Of course. I’d be willing to talk with you about magic. It’ll help me stay awake.”

Tony nodded, still looking a bit dazed, and went back to the kitchen.

When he returned with more steaming microwaved soup on a tray, I decided to leave. I could ask Tony about the details of what she shared later, for now I had other things to think about.

Namely, what was Flare saying about Loki’s eyes?

I had a suspicion, and I needed to know if it was correct.

*******

Tony’s POV

She ate the second and third bowls faster than the first, somehow. I figured it was for her magic, can’t create or destroy energy, what you take out you must put in, and all that.

I took the stacked bowls and tray when she placed them on the bench next to her, ignoring the wary look she gave me when I came closer.

Once I had sat back down, I said, “So. Wings.”

She gave a faint, though still cautious, smile and lay on her side against the pillows and the wall at the head of her bed. “Yeah, wings. What do you want to know?”

“How did you make them appear, as you definitely didn’t have them before.”

“I can shrink them. Make them denser than they should be so they can fit in a smaller space, then make a layer of skin grow over them. The layer doesn’t have nerve endings so I don’t feel pain when it breaks.”

Ah, that was what the raised lines were for. And probably the weirdly shaped back of both the tops she had worn, too.

“And how does that work? We have a guy who shrinks by using a suit that can reduce the amount of space in the atoms, is it like that?” Damn, I shouldn’t be thinking about them. I prevented myself from shaking my head as I mentally repeated, forget, forget, forget.

She thought this through for a moment. “I haven’t paid close attention to what it is actually doing, but that sounds about right, yes.” She paused, then huffed out a breath. “Don’t look so disappointed. Magic is different from science in the ways it works and is used. It is very impressive that the technology you described exists on Earth.”

Her praise didn’t mollify me in the least. Ha. I’d probably feel better if it was actually me who had built it. I also really don’t like that word, magic. As Flare’s telling me right now, it really is just a science we don’t understand. Yet. And we will understand it in the near future if I have anything to say about it.

Flare’s eyes were filled with amusement, almost as if she knew what…

“Can you hear what I’m thinking?! Are you reading my mind?! Stop it!” I demanded harshly. I’d seen what mind control could do, and I did not want anyone in my head.

“You were just thinking so loudly, Stark. You were practically shouting at me; most people do when they don’t know. Thoughts are very loud, but few can hear them.” She had been speaking in a joking tone, but now she spoke seriously. “I promise I do not go looking in people’s minds unannounced. I will always ask permission first. What I do for most of the time is expand my magic to my surroundings, so I can know if something approaches, or if other magic is nearby. The more magic I have, the further I can sense. If someone’s thoughts intrude on that magic, I can feel occasional words that link to, or if it is a solely emotional based outburst sometimes a few sensations from, that thought.”

Now, I admit, I was a bit intrigued. I know I shouldn’t have been, given what magic and mind control had done to Clint, but she sounded sincere, and I couldn’t sense any real danger from her. I closed my eyes and thought, So, can you hear this?

‘Partially. I have connected a link now, so if you direct your thoughts to me, like you’re speaking but don’t open your mouth, we can have a proper conversation, without anyone else being aware.’

‘This is amazing! Imagine if we could make comms “work like this! There would be no risk of someone hacking in, or of the comm breaking, or… Huh. I’m speaking out loud now.”

I noticed she had started to smile again. “Yes, since the second half of that sentence. It takes some practise, especially of sending what you actually want someone to hear, and what you were imagining you might ‘say’ before speaking. You picked it up very fast though.”

I felt the same rush of energy I got as when I found something new to build. I was quite proud of myself, bet others would have taken far longer than me.

‘For a human.’

“Aw, thanks. And we were just starting to be friendly too.”

She grinned at me.

“Sir, it is time to administer the next bag,” Friday said a few seconds after I had finished.

I had forgotten about Loki for a time, but saw that three hours had passed since the last dose. I got up with a sigh and walked across the room to where the mixtures were kept.

“No, Stark. I need Loki to wake up now. We will be leaving within the next day or two, as soon as our magic is at a reasonable level.”

I turned, and saw that Flare had silently got up and stood between me and Loki again. She was still tired and leaning against the bed, but she made it clear that she wouldn’t let me reach him.

“He did a lot of damage when he was here, Flare. I don’t know why you protect him so much, he tried to rule Earth and killed many innocent people in that attempt.”

Flare bristled, her wings again starting to unfurl in a solid wall, blocking me off. It was scary how fast she could change emotions, she was smiling with me not a minute ago, and now was glaring at me in anger.

“I protect him because no one else will. I protect him because he protected me. We suffered together for 11 years, and we kept each other alive. I would be dead hundreds of times over if it wasn’t for him, and I’ve saved him just as much. I protect him because he is the only one who understands me completely. And I protect him because together, we are the only ones who can…”

*THHHH-WUMP*

Flare stopped speaking. She then tilted her head, and blinked once. Abruptly, she went completely still, and her eyes flashed.

“Sir, Thor has arrived on the helipad.”

“Odinson,” Flare hissed with such venom that I took a step back. I didn’t know what Thor would have done to cause such utter hatred in the teenager, but right now I felt sorry for the guy. He didn’t even know what was coming.

“Uh. Thanks, Friday. He probably shouldn’t come down here, so tell him I’ll be up in a minute.”

“He and the other Avengers are already coming down to the infirmary as we speak. They will be here very soon.”

Flare spun around back to Loki, and touched his wrist. After a couple of seconds, a green glow started, and about five seconds after that, slowly started to fade until it disappeared. Flare muttered what sounded like “Thanks, nar-der,” then went around to the other side of the bed and sat down, so she was between Loki and the door. Her wings had closed again behind her, and she let them trail over the edge of the bed on either side of her body.

“Uh, no. That is not a good idea. Tell them to go back to the communal floor.”

But it was too late. Thor’s weighted footsteps were now close enough to be heard in the hallway leading to the infirmary, as well as three lighter sets trailing him.

I put the bag I still had in my hand back on the table and rushed out the door.

I stood in front of Thor, forcing him to stop. He looked murderous. “Hey, Point Break. I know you want to go in there but please don’t. We should all go back to the floor with a bar and drinks to have this conversation, and…”

“Move aside, Tony. I wish to see Loki.”

“Mm, okay. I know you do, but…someone else came with him, and they really don’t seem to like the thought of you coming in just yet. So, if we could turn around…”

“Move aside, Tony. If he has brainwashed another with his silver tongue to participate in his schemes, I must break his hold immediately.” He took a step forward.

“Thor, listen to me. Do not…go…in?”

I noticed that Nat, T’Challa, and Peter, as well as Thor, had stopped looking at me, and were instead looking at a point just over my left shoulder.

Behind me, hanging in the air, was glowing red writing in an elegant, but still easy to read, font. There were small flames flickering along the edges and I knew immediately who wrote them.

‘Oh, Stark,’ it read. ‘You should know that it is pointless arguing with this god if he has his mind set on something. He will simply ignore you, or push you into what he thinks is your place.’

The words gave ample time for everyone to read them, then erased themselves as if the air was a whiteboard. New words started to be written by an invisible hand, in the same position.

‘Thunderer, you are welcome to enter if you choose, but I warn now that you may not like what you find.’ They also stayed for a while, then disappeared. I turned to Thor again.

He scowled, then pushed past me, despite my protestations, and entered the infirmary.

*******

Flare’s POV

As soon as I heard the sound of the Bifrost hitting ground, I expanded my senses beyond the infirmary and the hallway. I found there were now seven minds on the upper floors of the tower, not including myself. Four were human, one was the newly living mind gem, but there were two, not one, Asgardians.

Even before the AI in the tower announced who had arrived, I knew.

“Odinson,” I hissed, startling Stark. He instructed the AI to inform the others he would be up shortly, eying me as he did so.

“He and the other Avengers are already coming down to the infirmary as we speak. They will be here very soon.”

Oh, the bacraut would be getting a surprise when he came.

I put my hand on Loki’s wrist and gently pushed with my mind onto his. His mind was sluggish from the remaining sedative, but he recognised me, and his mental barriers let me through easily.

‘The Golden Son of Asgard has come, and is likely not going to listen to the Avengers who are trying to convince him to remain away from us. My magic reserves are low. Will you allow me use of yours?” I asked.

The response was slow and faint, but there.

‘Of course, lítt foa. I have regained a notable amount over the days I’ve been asleep, and it is not like I can use it for anything, since you healed me even after I specifically told you not to.’

‘Well, you know as well as I do that I do what I want. I wonder who could possibly have influenced me to act like that.’

He huffed the equivalent of a laugh. ‘Yes, yes, blame me for everything. And you know as well as I do that you acted like this long before you met me. Now off with you. Let me sleep in peace.’

I felt his magic swirl, and then start flowing to me. To another pair of mages, the transfer would have a sensation of intrusion, but our magic had been connected for so long and so completely, that it would be natural for me to use his.

Once most of his magic had moved to me, I started to retreat from his mind.

‘Make him act a little foolish, won’t you? For me?’ I could feel the overdone innocent tone leaking through his words.

It was my turn to laugh. ‘Will do, Loki. Now enjoy your beauty sleep. You need it!’

He forcefully pushed me out of his mind on the last comment.

I smiled a bit, now with my body able to use more magic, and muttered, “Thanks, nadr.” I sat on the bed and waited, just like last time, for someone to enter.

Stark rushed out, and I could hear him trying to placate Thor and convince him to go back to the ‘communal floor.’ Of course Thor, being Thor, didn’t listen.

I used my replenished magic to write two glowing messages in the air outside the infirmary.

And then he came in.

Chapter Text

Flare’s POV

He came in, and the other Avengers weren’t far behind, but I only had eyes for the God of Thunder.

He looked confused for a second when he first caught sight of Loki, still asleep, and me, blocking his path.

I glared at him.

“Stay back, undirfǫrull bróðir.” I called him a ‘false brother’ in his own language. Not only was it an insult, but, if he cared to observe, I was not Asgardian, and so should not know it. I was hinting that I was more than I appeared.

Of course, he didn’t see this, and carried on walking, although now he did have an even more pronounced scowl on his face. I stood up and let my wings snap out, to about half their total span, and keeping the back curved around my ribs so as not to bleed again.

He was startled, and stopped walking. I doubt he even saw my wings through his blinding rage when he first entered.

“I have warned you twice now. Once in the hallway, and once when you walked in. I will warn you a third and final time. You have no idea who or what you are dealing with. If you come any closer, I refuse to hold back against you.” He didn’t know that I was referring to both my words as well as a physical attack. He’d learn soon enough.

“Stand aside, girl.” I stopped myself from flinching when he called me…that. “I do not wish to hurt you, only to take Loki back to Asgard.”

“Flare, you really should. See reason, he is a god of myth and he takes great enjoyment in pummeling things.” That was Stark, from the corner, trying to make me stand down, in his own humour-filled way.

“I thank you for your concern, Stark, but I will not leave Loki to the likes of him,” I said calmly, without taking my eyes off Thor.

“Why do you stand with my traitor of a brother? He must have put some kind of seiðr on you. Let me take you both to Asgard and the Allfather can remove…”

I laughed, a cold, hard laugh that came from years spent with Loki. “There is no need for that, Thunderer. All the spells Loki has ever willingly used on me were to save my, or both of our, lives. No, the only traitorous brother here is you.”

Dead silence.

Then, “What did you say?” The Thunderer whispered, which I didn’t think was possible.

“You heard me perfectly well.”

Thor turned his anger back to Loki now. “He has filled you with his lies. He has tried to kill me many times, nearly destroyed one planet and led an army to another, and, until recently, had been ruling Asgard in my father’s image!”

The Avengers looked a bit taken aback by that. Obviously he had forgot to mention that little detail.

“Mmm,” I muttered disinterestedly. “He tried to kill you, yet with the Destroyer, he backhanded you rather that incinerated you. He thought you would survive, and simply be knocked out like you would have been as an Asgardian. He never knew you were mortal, only that you were viewed as unworthy.”

“On the Bifrost…”

“On the Bifrost, he fought you to try and delay you. Only when you were going to destroy the Bifrost completely did he go for a stabbing blow that you wouldn’t have been able to block, and he aimed for your right shoulder so it would be harder to wield Mjolnir, still not to kill.”

“You…”

“On top of Avengers tower, he could have summoned a poisoned blade, or stabbed you in the heart. Even chosen a knife that would have done lasting damage rather than heal within an hour once pulled out.”

On the next time he tried to speak, I strode forward until I was only two metres away. He had Mjolnir in his hand, but from this distance if he swung it I’d have time to move still.

“And what did you do? You never listened to him, particularly when he recommended not to do something. You always told him to know his place, as if he was less of a prince than you. You would cause a raging thunderstorm when you were, with proof, accused of something, yet condemned Loki to a punishment for any crime he was accused of, without evidence and without a trial, and ignored his words of innocence.”

“Because he is…”

“A liar? You and the rest of the nine realms only called him such when you did not agree with his words. As soon as he told an unlikeable truth, he was lying. You all used him as a scapegoat, knowing no one would ever believe Loki the Trickster, Loki God of Mischief and Lies, Loki Silvertongue!”

“Because he would twist our words! And because if we had given him trial, he would deceive the truth spells!” His rage had returned full force, and now arcs of lightning were leaping from his hammer to his arms, and climbing up his torso. The Avengers stepped back.

“Maybe the truth spells didn’t show he was lying, because he wasn’t lying! Did you ever think of that? And how would he know how to trick them if he was never allowed to participate in the All-Thing?”

Thor was surprised, but his anger didn’t change.

“What, did you never notice he wasn’t present at any of them? He would have been the most useful to be there, yet he wasn’t ever allowed in unless it was him who the Thing was held for.” No, he was never allowed, but Thor didn’t need to know that Loki had, on occasion, snuck in against the orders of others.

Thor opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again.

“Aside from that, you and everyone else in Asgard looked down on him, even though he was a prince of your realm, and insulted him. Do you know how many times he has been called ergi, and how many of these were from those he was definitely senior to? Do you know how many times you and your friends called him that? How about the rumours spread about him, most of which didn’t have even a grain of truth in them?

“And you, Thunderer. You were the worst to him of them all. For just one of many examples, when you forced him to come into the dragon’s lair with you and your friends 300 years ago, you all shoved aside his warnings and research. You ignored his protests, and I doubt you even heard him say that many dragon’s hoards are cursed, or at least smothered with spells. He was sick for days because of the pervading magic, which he protected you from by the way, and nearly lost his life, but none of you warriors cared.”

Again he opened his mouth, then shut it. I could see the fight leaving him. The lightning hadn’t died down, but it was aimless in its movements; lost as its master was.

“And on another occasion, I distinctly remember you blocking his magic with shackles for a week before you deigned to give him the key, because he beat you in an all skills allowed tournament with his magic. You and Loki were only in your 5^th and 4^th centuries, respectively.”

“How do you know this?” His tone was very angry, and I got close to being shocked by an errant spark. I managed not to flinch. “He never tells anyone of his childhood, not even Sigyn, his closest friend, knows any of this!”

Usually when I was angry, my voice became quiet, but I shouted my next words at the Thunderer, so he would be able to hear me clearly, and maybe also listen. “Because after he fell from the Bifrost, the Chitauri and their leader found him broken and weak, and I was delivered to them in the same state soon after. Because while for you it has been less than five years, for us we have been stuck with only each other and our tormentors, our torturers, for eleven, not even counting the times we were separate or had escaped. The injuries we had when we first came wasn’t anywhere near the worst of what they did. With our amounts of magic flowing through us, we did not need food. We did not need water. They left us stranded on planets and moons without atmospheres, even chained to asteroids floating in space, because we could survive without breathing.” The young Spider-Man was beginning to look pale. “We called you and you never came! None of you even heard! Or if one of your sorceresses did, they ignored us!”

I closed my left wing and moved closer to Loki, then reached behind me to touch his neck. The indigo collars faded into view on both of us. The thin magic chain that connected them together was taut, but more links appeared as I walked back to Thor.

I hissed, “for almost all of that time, my magic and I have been joined to him. Right now, I am using his magic, not my own, which is frankly painful to other mages, but even in reverse we would feel no difference. We have shared our knowledge of magic, and now nearly everything he can do, I can do, and vice versa. However, whenever they set his collar to prevent his magic from recovering, mine is also restricted in the same way.” The collars had disappeared again to wherever they went when no one wanted them to be visible. I rubbed my now clear neck and spread my wing again in case Thor decided to throw the hammer at Loki.

My voice dropped in volume again. “The main reason I know of his past, however, is because by use of that damnable mind gem, we have seen every moment of the other's life. Everything. No secrets were able to be kept hidden. As I said to Stark, he is the only one who understands me completely. What I didn’t say is, he’s the only one who ever will.

“None of what I have said is what makes me angry at you, though. No. The events in recent years have done that. There are two main ones. The slightly less severe is when you left his body on Svartalfheim after he sacrificed his life to save yours, and in doing so let you take all the credit for preventing Malekith from using the Aether. He got no recognition, and nearly died. The only reason he’s still alive is because his connection to me let him use my life energy to keep his heart beating and lungs breathing, so he could actually heal properly. I had precious little to give from my place in our cell, and we were both unconscious for at least three hours, but, evidently, we survived.”

I paused here to calm myself a bit. If I was too angry with Thor when I decided to continue, I’d probably attack him, and that wouldn’t be pretty. I was still magically and physically drained, so I wouldn’t be able to last long against the god, but I could do quite a bit of damage nevertheless. There was silence in the room.

After a couple more seconds of pause, Romanoff said, “and the second reason?” Her voice sounded flat, and she looked like she already suspected what I was going to say. I knew she would have picked up on my slip earlier.

I stared straight into Thor’s blue eyes that had dulled in his shame.

“The second reason is that, although you have called yourself his brother for more than a thousand years, you didn’t stop to wonder what had made him go insane in a matter of months. What made him change so much that he did the exact opposite of what he told you on the Bifrost. You came close, ‘who controls the would-be king,’ but you didn’t pay attention and focused on the Tesseract again, rather than your brother.

“I hate you, Thunderer, because you did not notice that when Loki came here, his eyes had changed colour! They were no longer emerald green. No. They were blue.”

All but Romanoff looked surprised, and Thor was horrified. Thor’s wide eyes flicked down to where Loki was blocked by a wing, then back to my face. He was slouched, with Mjolnir hanging limp by his side. The lightning stopped.

I judged that he would not hurt Loki now, and so took a gamble. I snapped my wings closed and strode around to the other side of the bed, anger allowing me to ignore the pain these actions caused in my back.

“See him now, and look me in the eye if you still want to call him the traitor. If so, then prepare for a fight, for I will protect him with my last breath, as he would do for me. If not, then get out.”

*******

Tony’s POV

Flare was positively radiating anger. Even from behind Thor, I could practically feel it, and that feeling had nothing to do with Thor’s light-show, from which there was still static hanging in the air.

Thor himself looked utterly dejected. I could tell that her words had hit him particularly hard.

“You…you must be lying. You must be. I would have realised it if the words you speak were the truth. Wouldn’t I? You must be lying.” Thor was muttering to himself. I could barely hear him from where I stood, yet from Flare’s darkening expression, she evidently still could. She started to say something else but Nat interrupted her.

“Thor, I looked at the footage we had from the helicarrier. His eyes were definitely blue. Whether they are usually, I wouldn’t know, but they were blue.”

Thor turned, and gave the most broken, hangdog look I’ve ever seen. There was a faint sheen of moisture in his eyes, and I could have sworn his lip trembled. He glanced back at Flare, and in a wavering but somehow still strong voice declared, “if I find that anything you said is false, I will kill both of you.” Flare just straightened her stance. Thor then walked out slowly.

Flare nodded once he was gone, and laid her hand back on Loki’s wrist like she had done before. The green glow started up again.

“Here, nadr. I didn’t use much.” She still sounded angry, but not like before. She looked down with a scowl, as if Loki had said something, then muttered, “Thanks so much for that.” The glow faded and she let go of his wrist, looking a lot less tense than she should have after her confrontation with Thor.

I turned on Nat. “How did you know?”

“Flare cut herself off when talking about the mind gem before. I decided to look into it. Now, in her story, she supported those suspicions.” Her tone was tense, and I had the feeling there was more behind why she had said what she said. This was confirmed when she gave a quick glance to me, then toward the door, then the floor, which had faint marks from the lightning. She had said it just to remove Thor from the room, then, which I thought to have been a very good idea.

“And you are telling the truth?” T’Challa asked of Flare. “His eyes are usually green?”

Flare nodded, and looked to Loki’s face. “Yes. They are green. It was the mind gem that turned them blue when he came here. None of you could have noticed, but when the Hulk smashed him, the hold was broken, and his eyes started reverting back. It was a slow process, because he had been under so many times, but they have been green again since he returned to Asgard.”

“Shit,” I swore. It was the most appropriate reaction for all the revelations dropped on us, but I was also using it so I didn’t punch something, preferably the god in the bed, who had almost certainly orchestrated all of this.

Before anything else was said, Peter left the room, being far too pale for my liking, and T’Challa followed him.

I looked to Nat, and saw her, for once, expressing her absolute anger. I knew I probably looked much the same. We had both just learned that apparently, the man who had tried to take over our planet, killed many innocents, killed Coulson, and threatened all of us, had suffered the same as Clint, on a much longer time period. I was having trouble accepting it, and evidently, so was she.

“Sir, Loki has not yet had the next bag of drugs.” Friday ended the silence.

Broken out of my thoughts, I hurried to get one, and ran into an invisible wall.

 “I still won’t let you do that, especially now that the Thunderer is here, we cannot stay. I do not hold confidence in him keeping away, and he might still think I’m ‘under Loki’s spell,’” She made air quotes, “and try to kill him. I can’t let that happen, so once Loki wakes and we heal our most pressing injuries, we will leave.”

“Thor wouldn’t do that,” I tried to convince her so she would stay. If she left with Loki and recovered her strength, it would be much harder and a long time before he would be taken back to Asgard. We weren’t sure if she was telling the truth, for as I had already thought, this might have been just an extremely elaborate ploy to absolve Loki of the blame. He may have made an illusion to make his eyes blue, and the collars to appear too, as a safety to ‘prove’ his innocence if he failed, and spelled Flare as Thor suggested to help make us believe the story.

“Do you really believe that?” I startled, thinking she was reading my thoughts, but then she continued. “You heard what he said as he walked out the door. Thor has already renounced Loki as his brother before, and only abandoned those thoughts when he was convinced that Loki had died saving his and Miss Foster’s lives.”

She sounded so earnest. Either she actually believed what she was saying, or Loki had more control over her than we suspected.

Now she looked wounded. She did hear my thoughts that time. “You…you don’t believe me. Do any of you?! After all I’ve told you, you don’t believe me?” She glanced between us, then focused on Nat. “He respects you, you know. He hurt you with his words, he could tell, yet you still stayed to get what you wanted.” She looked back to me. “He respects both of you, as you were the only two who picked up on his hints.” Her eyes expressed the same sheen Thor’s had before he left.

I refused to be fooled by her act. It must have been an act.

Her eyes narrowed, though were still wet.

“Get out,” She spat.

We stayed put.

“I said get out.” She clenched a hand as her wings fanned out, and I felt something push against me. It wasn’t a particularly strong force, but it was unexpected, and still enough to cause me to slide backwards until I hit the wall outside the door. The force had pushed Nat out as well.

Flare was heaving, but suddenly she broke. Loki’s unconscious form moved over on the bed, and she gingerly settled next to him, her energy spent. Her head found its way to his chest, just below his neck, and her right wing covered them both. Even with it partially folded and at an awkward angle, it protected the whole of Loki from any attack.

Before the door slammed shut and blocked our view, I saw her body start to shake in quiet sobs.

Chapter Text

Tony’s POV

We couldn’t open the door again. It had locked and Friday wasn’t able to override it. We instead raced to an area we could access camera footage from, so we would still be able to keep an eye on them.

“Friday, have the largest screen show the infirmary, and let the microphones feed whatever they say into here. Once they wake, they might mention something we can use to possibly find them later.” I turned to Nat. “Go to T’Challa and Vision and tell them they have next watch here. We’ll watch in pairs, as this room is quite close to theirs, and when they wake whoever is here will be able to get there first. They should bring their gear too.”

Nat walked out, and I started watching the screens. Flare had quickly suppressed her sobs and fallen asleep, against her best efforts most likely, curled into Loki’s side with the wing still covering them both.

Friday woke the rest of us at about 7am, right in the middle of Vision and T’Challa’s watch, because Loki had started to move. Thor, Nat, Peter, and I joined them in the surveillance room.

Loki’s visible movements were only slight, his eyelids fluttered and head twitched, but it put all of us on edge.

A few minutes after that, he opened his eyes, and moved his head so he could focus on the girl beside him. His lips tugged upward, and he slowly moved his arms, still joined by the shackles, to tap her wing once. It folded as Flare lifted her head. She had been asleep, but as she turned to the camera, we saw her eyes were already alert.

She rolled off the bed and stretched her arms and wings slightly, giving a full body shudder like a cat, before they closed again. She had her back to Loki, who then must have ‘said’ something, because she looked sheepish.

Loki huffed and sat up carefully, shifting his legs off the bed, then gestured for her to come closer. She did, and gave a determined nod to whatever he had asked. Her wings started to shrink until they were back to the raised lines we had first seen, but red, until as we watched, a layer of skin grew over them. It was a bit disturbing.

She gathered all her hair and put it over her left shoulder, then closed her eyes and nodded again. Loki reached to the tips of the topmost ribs, and gently pushed. Flare shifted, but didn’t make a noise, even though it must have been incredibly painful. Loki then moved to the next ones, keeping his other hand on the ones already done, until all of them were back in place.

Flare reached behind her to start healing them properly, and Loki removed his hands when they weren’t needed, wiping Flare’s blood from them onto the bed. In an astoundingly short amount of time, Flare stepped away, injury completely gone, not even scars remaining.

The two had another short silent conversation, and Flare made a strange gesture, one arm above the other with palms facing each other. When she moved her arms to the side, two amber swirling patterns started, quickly gathering into small orange balls. She grabbed them in a continuous movement before they could start to fall, then gave the two objects to Loki. He put them under his arms, like Flare had done with the cloths before, and I realised what they were doing.

Soon enough, the same series of loud clicks echoed, and Loki also twitched involuntarily at the electricity, but otherwise had no reaction. Once the shackles were off, Flare grabbed and melted them as well, leaving another puddle in the middle of the floor. Loki removed the small orange balls, then made the same gesture as Flare but in reverse. They were gone when he opened his hands.

They ‘spoke’ again. Before I had admired the possibilities of these silent conversations, now I just found them a pain. We wouldn’t have any idea where they would go next if they managed to evade us and leave the tower.

Abruptly, Flare nodded, and waved a hand toward the door.

“The door has been unlocked, sirs and Miss Romanoff.”

We already had our gear on, and we ran in formation to the infirmary hall.

When we reached the door not a minute later, T’Challa, Peter, Natasha, and I separated on either side of the entrance. Vision and Thor were the most likely to withstand a direct attack, so they quickly opened the door and went in first, before the rest of us followed.

We expected them to go on a rampage, and mercilessly attack to escape, so we aimed our respective weapons. Nat and T’Challa had guns so they didn’t have to go too close, but they only focused on Flare, as we knew our bullets didn’t work on Loki.

When we entered, Flare was standing motionless in the middle of the room, with Loki close behind her on her left. Now that he was awake, I studied him properly. He was much thinner than the last time we saw him, and without his armour he looked smaller too. (Not that he was now small, by the way, just smaller.) His already sharp face was more pronounced than before, as a result of his emaciation. The visible skin on his face, neck, hands, and feet was grey, as he was still covered in dirt, worsening his gaunt appearance. There were patches of his pale skin visible, though it was noticeably whiter that the last time we saw him. Altogether, he looked almost like a ghost.

He had his hand resting on Flare’s shoulder. She was actually a lot more emaciated than him, and her bones were still clearly visible even through the thick shirt she wore. The top of Flare’s head only reached Loki’s chin, so we could clearly see their expressions. Loki was neutral, though his eyes (green now, I did notice, not that it proved anything), showed way too much amusement for the situation. Flare had a small mischievous smile, that actually gave me shivers. She looked each of us in the eye briefly.

“Release her, Loki. Do not bring her into your tricks,” warned Thor, brandishing Mjolnir in front of him.

Flare made to speak, but Loki gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and she closed her mouth. She frowned at Loki, then silently glared at Thor.

“I’m preventing her from attacking you and your Midgardian shield brothers-and-sister at this moment. She desperately wishes to throw a fireball at you all.” Loki inclined his head. “I have no idea what you could have done to upset her so.”

And there it was. The honeyed voice dripping with sarcasm that I had hoped to never hear again.

Flare glanced at him, her shoulders dropping and head tilting. Her expression now clearly said, ‘really?’ and she elbowed him in the side gently. With anyone else, it would have been funny. To be honest, they were almost acting like siblings. This infuriated me. Loki was so casual, as if talking with friends, rather than with people he had tried to kill, and who had sent him back to Asgard in chains in return.

I started firing up my right-hand glove. “Surrender now and this won’t get messy.”

The two didn’t react, only slowly started walking backwards together, heading for the window that led to the outside. Loki let go of Flare and instead stood on her left, shoulders touching.

Flare made a quiet laugh. “Oh, we’d love to stay and chat, Stark, but we really must be going.” When they reached the window behind them, they stopped, and Flare lightly touched it with her right hand.

“That window is made of some of the strongest glass possible. Even Thor takes a good half a minute to break it with Mjolnir.” It didn’t sound like much, but really with that hammer anything the Thunder God smashed would be destroyed instantly. The glass at least took a few solid hits.

Loki smiled, all teeth, and Flare just raised an eyebrow. Not a second later, the whole pane behind them turned red-hot and melted. Not a gradual melt, but one second there the next a waterfall (molten-glass-fall?) and it was gone, flowing down the side of the building, leaving a gaping hole.

Nat and T’Challa started shooting at them, but either Loki or Flare made the bullets veer off course, pinging into the walls or the floor. Neither flinched.

A green light flashed around Loki, and when it cleared there were two Flare’s standing in front of us. Flare’s wings had returned while this happened, and I realised they meant to fly out.

“Fireballs now?” from Original-Flare was our only warning before two large balls of flame headed straight for us. We all dived out of the way, and as I landed I saw the two prepare to jump out the window. Original-Flare locked eyes with me, and waved with one hand while giving the middle finger with the other. Flare-Loki rolled his/her eyes as they stepped backwards into nothing.

Thor’s arm moved, and Mjolnir started singing as it flew through the air. Their eyes widened, but neither could avoid it. Before they were even gripped by gravity, the hammer hit.

But it didn’t. The hammer passed straight through Flare and Flare-Loki, who were now frozen, even with no floor below their feet. They flickered, gold, green, and red, until the images flashed out of existence.

“Illusions,” Thor grumbled just as Friday spoke over everyone’s comms.

“There are two birds on the floor of the fourth stairwell, Sirs and Miss Romanoff. I believe they are the real Flare and Loki.”

We glanced at each other, I didn’t even start to think about what that sentence meant, then started to each make our quickest way down the tower.

*******

Flare’s POV

After Loki had helped heal me, I relished in the lack of throbbing pain. I wished I could have grown my wings again now, and stretch properly, but I needed to use the magic sleeping had let me regain to leave this tower.

‘Thanks, Loki,’ I said.

‘You are welcome, as always. Could you materialise the resin for me now? I dearly wish to be rid of these shackles.’

I nodded, then grabbed two small balls of orange resin from the dimensional pocket for him. As soon as I passed them over, he put them under his arms, and clenched them tight.

Once the shackles came off, I grabbed them and walked a few steps away to melt them. It should be impossible, but we didn’t want to underestimate the Avengers and have them learning how to make more. The ones that Thanos had were already enough of a threat.

I felt his use of magic as Loki replaced the balls of resin, though hopefully we wouldn’t have to use them again.

‘How much magic do you have left?’ Loki asked me while my back was still turned.

I faced him as I replied, ‘not too much. What were you thinking of doing?’

‘Can you shift?’

In Asgard, it was only a cruel rumour that Loki could shapeshift into more than just other Asgardians. Very few knew that it was actually fact (Odin, Heimdall, and Thor were the only ones left alive in this category), and no one was aware that his Jotun form was not the last species he could shift to. In reality, both of us could change into virtually anything we wanted, if we had enough magic. ‘Yeah, definitely enough for two small ones. Possibly three if they are similar animals. No dragons yet though.’ I loved it when we could become dragons. They were so intimidating and powerful, and could do the equivalent of multiple animals at once, so we didn’t need to change again.

‘No dragons needed. Could you hold an illusion at the same time if we only used…Hmm. Maybe two birds?’ Of course he already had a plan.

‘Yes. Should be fine.’

He thought for a moment, then sent me his ideas through the mind link. It was a good plan, and with any luck would likely leave some magic, however small, to use later.

Both of us formed an illusion at the exact position and place we were standing in, and that resembled us completely, splitting our focus on ourselves and the new images. Then we stepped back, making our real bodies invisible to all alive, or non-alive, observers but each other.

I closed my eyes as I concentrated on the next spell, and I felt my body begin to change, getting smaller, and growing feathers. Within a minute, there were two barn owls standing on the floor of the infirmary.

One of our escapes that lasted for a month had been mainly spent in Australia. We found such a wide diversity of different unique animals for us to use, and I particularly fell in love with the birds.

I couldn’t see much of myself, but knew that I was a few centimetres taller than Loki (for once) in this animal form, and had white, light brown, and dark brown plumage, with a heart-shaped face. Loki would have had the same coloured plumage, but a shapeshift alone does not remove dirt, so his feathers were more grey or black.

I knew he hated it, and wanted to ruffle his feathers to dislodge some, but that would leave a large, noticeable pile of dirt on the floor and give away our position. Instead, with some mental grumbling, he bound it to himself, so when we flew it wouldn’t drop.

We each spread our wings behind us, and jumped into the air, flying silently with our new owl bodies onto a railing at the edge of a metal table. Once stable, I made my illusion wave a hand to the door as I unlocked it, and both the illusions moved to a position so they were facing the door, but still able to easily reach the barrier separating us from the outside. The Avengers would be coming soon.

 As soon as they rushed into the infirmary, Loki and I took off again, out the door and into the hallway. We each were concentrating a little on our illusions we left behind, but the energy required was quite minimal. The harder tasks were melting the window and deflecting the bullets. I did both, as Loki needed to adjust his illusion into my image. Thor didn’t know the difference between an actual shapeshift and an illusion, so the green light would pass unnoticed.

Having some of my mind on what the Avengers were saying and making the illusion respond as I normally would was a bit disorienting. It was like seeing two completely different images in each eye at the same time. Loki was used to it, he used illusions so much, but I admit that on a few occasions as we moved down the floors, I had to slow down to avoid crashing into a wall.

We were going as fast and quiet as possible down the stairs between levels. We had just reached the last few floors when Thor threw Mjolnir and the illusions dissolved.

The sudden snapping of the connection to the illusions caused us both to screech aloud and land. A headache came soon after. Usually, losing an illusion wouldn’t bother us at all, but the ambient energy of Mjolnir caused havoc in the magic if unexpected direct contact was made.

Loki screeched again, and although he hadn’t sent the thought to me, I knew he had cursed.

‘Loki, you’re flickering.’ Thor and his bloody hammer had disrupted the cloaking spell too.

He looked at me for a second. ‘So are you.’

‘Damn. The AI will be able to see us now. It will warn them as to where we are,’ actually, I could sense them moving now. So much for Plan A) Getting out completely unnoticed. ‘Stark, Thor, Vision, and Parker are coming down the side of the building, heading toward the front door. Romanoff and T’Challa are taking the lift, but it is a very fast one, so will be down here in seconds,’ as I spoke, we took off again and left the last of the stairwells, entering the last floor. ‘They are trying to block us off, so we’ll need to hide until they give up.’

Using a small burst of magic, I prevented Friday from locking the doors to outside, and instead opened them. Loki and I shifted forms in mid-air as we flew out, changing to just another two, average grey pigeons, in the massive city of Manhattan. There was a flock of the birds on the ground where someone had dropped a lot of food, and we joined in the mess of flapping and cooing until no cameras would be able to tell which ones were us.

We were just in time, as the Avengers came seconds later. All the birds, including us, rose into the air as the flock was scared by the sudden appearance of four flying objects coming closer to them, and two running ones. Thor’s angry cry echoed behind us.

The birds split up, going separate ways in search of more food, joining other groups. Loki and I lost each other, but we had already planned for this, (About Plan D, because Loki always had plans A through Z) and knew where we would meet later.

I flew from place to place, landing on car mirrors, traffic lights, trees, and buildings. I also went to Central Park for a while, in case of the very minimal chance CCTV cameras on buildings had been able to track me from the first flock we had used as cover.

I breathed in the wonderful fresh air, and preened just to have an excuse to linger. An hour after I’d left the tower, I started to fly toward where I would find Loki. Sandy Hook was almost 35km south from Central Park, and would take about 45 minutes for me to fly straight there.

Being a pigeon, and an exhausted one at that, I had to take breaks along the way, and it was closer to an hour before I landed on the sand. Loki was already there, still in pigeon form, sitting in some shade a pile of sand had created. He was slightly wet, so had likely washed in a fountain somewhere.

‘Were you here long?’ I asked.

‘No. I arrived only recently. Are you able to continue?’

‘In a minute. I need a break.’ I strutted over in the weird way of a pigeon, and sat down on the sand beside him.

‘A few minutes rest then,’ he said, and tucked his head under a wing. I did the same, and let myself regain energy for the next flight.

*******

We were going to use one of the World Tree portals to teleport where we wanted to go. They were scattered all over Yggdrasil, and connected the worlds. It was similar to Loki’s innate and (almost completely) unique ability to world- or sky-walk, but would save us a lot of energy, and take us to a place that would allow us to travel almost anywhere else on the earth later on.

We had to be away from prying eyes though, as only Loki and I knew the locations of the portals, or in this case, how to manipulate one to come to you.

When we were far enough away from the city, and there were few boats around, I gave my magic to Loki, who then used the combined amount to subtly direct the energy flows of the Tree until a tiny, multicoloured hole appeared before us; a smaller version of the Bifrost.

As he worked the magic, I sang through the link.

‘I’m coming home

I’m coming home

Tell the world I’m coming home

Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday.’

Loki looked at me in amusement, then once the portal fully appeared and he no longer had to concentrate on it, he joined in for the next few lines, though with an underlying feeling of sadness.

‘I know my kingdom awaits and they’ve forgiven my mistakes

I’m coming home, I’m coming home

Tell the world I’m coming…’

 We flew into it, and were spat back out in a large cave deep underground, extremely far away from where we had entered. We were still on Earth, or rather in, but in a place no human had ever found.

It was not a filthy, disgusting cave, but instead was lit up by the gentle yellow glow of lanterns made from magic, fixed to the ceiling far above, and around the walls, imitating the sun. These allowed small plants to grow, with the occasional bush scattered around as well. The lanterns also emitted a small amount of heat, so the cave was pleasantly warm.

There was a small river with clear water that cut through the rock on one side, where blind cave-dwelling fish swam, not knowing we could see them perfectly. The river came from a tunnel at the top of the cavern, and disappeared down another tunnel after flowing through.

Many streams of energy ran through this area, intersecting at a magical crossroads. When we had more magic, Loki and I would use them to sky-walk into various cities, and get food.

Near the back of a cave was the façade of a simple house. It was brown like the surrounding rock, and had plants growing on and around it. It looked so much like a part of the wall that one could easily miss it at first glance if they didn’t already know it was there.

We flew through an open archway into this house, which extended far into the rock behind it, and perched on the back of a black double-seater leather couch.

I looked at him, and let out a wordless, happy cry.

We had escaped Thanos again, and we had come to our safe haven. Our home.

Chapter Text

NPOV

“How did they escape? Which of you incompetent insects did they manage to fool with their pitiful tricks this time?” Thanos roared and savagely backhanded the closest Chitauri, sending it flying into others of its kind. The sheer force behind the hit killed a small group of them, though he didn’t much care. They would be more souls for his Lady Death, however worthless they were.

One Chitauri soldier stepped forward, and started rapidly speaking in clicks, guttural grunts, and hisses. The Chitauri by Thanos’ side, one of the few in the lowest ranks who could speak a language Thanos could understand, started to translate, keeping its head down. It was halting, and the grammar was horrible, but it was understandable.

“They no know, Master. No damage to the cell, or dead left behind. Only one of us not responding over Mind, so they have not hidden kills, but’s nothing showing what they did to escape.”

“Who is missing?”

More clicks, then the same Chitauri translated.

“High Chitauri set 194 Kirrixa days ago to guard them, and bring them when you wanted.”

“They killed one of the High Chitauri? How?”

“No one knows. They no weapons, and magic was always bound by collars, or the shackles. There is no marks in cell, so no fight, though there’s fresh blood on floor near corner. Most is red, and there’s few drops of red-gold. There was one footprint in blood and dirt, but no more. Think they world-walked, and took High Chitauri, Master.”

“One of you mustn’t have secured them properly…” Thanos growled.

More Chitauri started rapidly clicking in the negative, knowing that they would be killed if Thanos thought it was their fault. After a few seconds, the translator related what it could hear.

“They were always restrained. No know how they managed to use magic, but energy remains show they went to Yggdrasil.”

Thanos’ fists clenched, and the Chitauri near him or in his way quickly retreated as he stalked toward his floating rock throne.

He sat down heavily, and called up a holographic screen used to contact those under his command who were far away. Eight blank boxes appeared on the screen, though each changed to the image of a different Chitauri once the call was accepted.

“Generals, the World-walkers have escaped and need to be found immediately. As you know, we are close to obtaining each of the Infinity Stones, regardless that we have lost them before, but we cannot proceed without both Walkers under our command. Are all your new armies of High Chitauri ready this time to be sent out?”

A chorus of grating voices called “Yes, Master,” in eerie synchronism.

“Good. Then dispatch into small groups and search every habitable area they could have gone to in each of your realms. It will have to have some kind of sustenance, for they will need a lot to recover. A larger group should go to each of the Main Planets, as they are more likely to be on one of them.”

“Yes, Master.”

“When you find them, bring them back, no matter what it takes. Any who die in your armies or from those you kill will be welcomed gifts to my Lady Death. The only ones who cannot die are the Walkers.”

One final call of “Yes, Master,” and the screens cut off.

Thanos smirked. The remaining Chitauri, knowing they were no longer needed in his presence, scurried away.

Now alone, he leaned back in his chair. His smirk dropped.

 Oh, my pets. Your escape is only an annoyance. It will not last long, and then, willingly or not, you will both help me in my plans, and my Lady will finally love me as I love her. No, as always, you won’t evade me for long. And now, the High Chitauri are ready for my commands.

He laughed once at the futility of his prisoner’s situation. After all, they didn’t stand a chance of defeating even a small army of High Chitauri. No one did.

*******

Tony’s POV

The sudden arrival of the Avengers drew attention from the people around us, but Thor’s loud bellow of rage as the flock flew away caused alarmed shouts, and some cars stopped. Noticing that we were likely about to cause an accident, I turned to the others.

“They’re gone. We’d be wasting our time, and dignity, if we chased after them. I’ve got Friday tracking as much of the flock as she can through cameras around the city,” I said in my metallic voice. We were all angry that they had tricked us, and that Loki particularly had escaped, but there was nothing we could do except wait for Friday to filter which ones could be them.

Peter nodded, and Nat went to Thor, who was still staring into the sky. He blinked twice as he lowered his head, then followed us without a word.

On the communal floor, he started to pace, and mutter incoherently to himself.

The rest of us left him, as right now he was deep within his own mind, and we didn’t want to startle him while he still held his hammer. I went to take off the suit, and the others did the same. When illusion Flare had thrown the still-very-real fireballs, they had left black burns on the floor of the infirmary, and also caught at least Vision’s cape. My suit was slightly damaged in one place, where the heat was a little too much, but it would be an easy fix.

When I returned to the communal floor, Thor was still pacing, looking at the floor with furrowed eyebrows, and his arms folded over his chest. He continued even as the others trickled back in, awkwardly sitting on the couches.

“So,” I broke the tense atmosphere, causing Thor to glance up, halting his movement. The remaining scowl caused me to flinch, but I continued. “Mind telling us what just happened?”

Thor looked back to the floor and started pacing again. “I do not know, Tony. They shapeshifted, somehow, into the owls and pigeons, but they shouldn’t have been able to. It is one of the hardest magics to perform, as the caster runs the risk of not changing properly, or if they change to an animal especially, becoming trapped in the other form, and being overcome by the natural instincts of the creature, so they forget themselves.

“Loki has only ever risked changing into other Asgardians, although rarely. Usually he used illusions, which could look like anything, but they would dissolve if touched by a real, living being, as they are no more than light.”

“That’s what he used to distract us wasn’t it? As well as in Stuttgart with the crowd and to trick you in the helicarrier,” Natasha deduced.

“Yes,” Thor confirmed. “He could change others too, both with illusion and shapeshifting, though again only with their same species. We used this to escape many situations in our past. But he has never changed anyone to an animal or other humanoid not of their species because the large difference in biology is too dangerous. Indeed, he never showed any skill nor even interest in the ability.” He winced before he spoke again.

“There have been rumours for centuries that he could, but they were used as jest. He assured me many times they were only cruel lies, not based on any truth, and warned us of the dangers of why he didn’t try to learn.”

“What rumours?” I asked.

“You Midgardians have recorded most of them, as they were generally spread the quickest here, at least through the colonies that worshipped us as their gods. Some of the stories that came from them were the ones about Loki having multiple monstrous children.”

“What?” I spluttered.

Thor laughed at my expression, and all the remaining tension left him. “Most of our adventures were recorded well, but each of us is paired with at least one other. Apparently, I have had two children with Sif, and another with a frost-giantess,” he frowned, “which I don’t think actually exists. I recall faintly that they can both father or birth a child.”

“Okay, disturbing images aside, back to Loki having kids?!”

“There were six; Jormungandr is a serpent that lives in Midgard’s oceans, and is large enough to circle the planet, Fenrir is a fearsome wolf, but since he was destined to kill Father, he has been bound with Gleipnir, an unbreakable chain made from six impossibilities, and Hela is the goddess of the dead in Helheim.”

I felt myself gaping, and at least Peter was the same.

Thor continued. “The mother of these three is said to be another made-up frost-giantess. All three exist, but Fenrir and Jormungandr were creatures we found while adventuring. They turned out to be more magical beasts than Loki expected. Gandr, we nicknamed him, grew too big for Asgard, which is why he now resides in your oceans, eating sea beasts in the depths. My mother foretold the prophecy for Fenrir, that he would kill Father at Ragnarok, but the myths describe his binding a lot harsher than they actually are. He is merely chained on an island in Vanaheim, able to roam the whole area. We did know about self-fulfilling prophecies. Fenrir is very intelligent, but not to the extent of any grown humanoid in the Nine Realms, so he is like an exceptionally smart dog confined to a large yard. All of us visit him often.

“Hela has been a goddess for longer than my father has lived, so she can’t possibly be Loki’s daughter. The story probably came from that instance when he was known to have died, but Hela returned him to us, saying she owed him for her existence. No one knew what she meant, and we still don’t, but obviously the mortals took this to mean he was her father.” He shrugged, then smiled broadly, humoured by the story he was retelling.

Known to have died? What? I thought about asking what he meant, but he had already moved on.

“Sigyn, I mentioned her yesterday, is Loki’s closest friend, and has been for many centuries, but in your myths, they are married and have had two children, twins.” His face fell here. “Narvi and Vali also did exist. They were children of an Einherjar and his wife, but orphaned in an attack by an assassin. The criminal was caught, but it was too late for their parents. Loki felt responsible, as the attack was for him, and the two had been casualties as the assassin approached. The wife’s yell when the Einherjar was killed, before being killed similarly herself, had saved Loki. He cared for the children, from when they were about 4 years old in human terms. The mortals didn’t know this background though, so they made them his children.”

“You speak of them in the past tense,” T’Challa mentioned.

I knew we were getting quite off topic of how Loki had escaped, but sue me, I found this new information astounding, and not only would it give us an insight into our newly returned enemy, but would use time while we waited for Friday to find them. I couldn’t see how the madman who had attempted to subjugate Earth could have inspired these stories though.

Thor sat down on one of the couches near Natasha with a glum sigh. “Yes. One of the few times both I and my Father completely disagreed with the Council’s ruling, they were replaced because of this. Loki was accused of killing Baldur, who was not our brother by the way, but he was loved by everyone, and practically a son to the whole of Asgard, even when he was grown. My mother and his mother were close friends, almost sisters, and Mother agreed to protect him from everything when he was an infant, but mistletoe was missed.”

He clenched his hand angrily around the arm of the chair, though released it before he crushed it. “A sorcerer framed Loki for killing Baldur with mistletoe in the popular game many Aesir participated in, namely, throwing things at Baldur because nothing would hurt him. Loki had a trial in the All-Thing,” he let out one scoff, “though I think mortals would say it was a ‘kangaroo court.’ Anyway, Odin didn’t believe Loki had done it, but the evidence was against him, so Loki was sentenced to a century imprisonment, minimum.”

Every one of the Avengers were engaged in his story, even Vision, though I’m pretty sure he knew how the story would end. In fact, he definitely did, and it didn’t seem good from his and Thor’s expressions. All of us (but Nat of course) jumped when Thor slammed his fist on his thigh angrily (I’m glad he caught himself from smashing the couch. They had cost a lot, and while I could have bought more, I’d rather not).

“The Council can over-rule the king’s decision if they have a unanimous vote. They devised what they called a ‘more fitting punishment for our most loved son’s unjust death’.” He took a deep breath here, then spoke quicker. “Vali and Narfi, then about 12 or 13 human-wise, were brought into the trial, but kept away from Loki. Both had muzzles on, and were scared. None of us knew what the Council had decided, but they had obviously planned it. One of the head sorceresses was also brought, though she clearly didn’t want to be there, and ordered to perform a particular spell. She did, and turned Vali into a-. A wolf, the muzzle falling off his snout.”

He sighed. “I told you the dangers of shapeshifting. Loki caught on faster than the rest of us, and immediately started trying to reach the twins, yelling to them, but he was unable to do anything else because both he and his magic were heavily bound as the trial demanded. Vali lasted less than a minute before the wolf’s nature overcame him, and he attacked his brother, killing him, before he was also killed by one of the Council members, with an enchanted arrow.”

Thor was on the verge of tears, and everyone else was stunned at the cruelty.

“I will never forget Loki in that moment. He fell to his knees, cut off mid-scream, and just stared, broken, at the two who had almost become like his children, even though he was physically only 18 at the time. He didn’t even react when guards loyal to the Council came for him, and took him away. Father, Mother, and I, as well as most of Asgard, protested, but nothing could be done yet. Within a week of the trial, though, the council was replaced, even those who claimed they were forced to cast the vote.

“The punishment the Council had decided went ahead in this week before we could change it back to Father’s original sentence, so as your myths say, he was bound in a pitch-black underground cavern to a rock slab carved with runes, and a giant serpent slowly dripped acidic venom on him. His restraints were made of...of the…” he swallowed, unable to continue for a moment, “N-Narfi and Vali’s…” he gestured to his own abdomen.

“Narfi and Vali’s entrails, turned into iron, the myths say,” Friday finished for him, and I felt sick. No wonder the guy went insane.

Thor nodded, staring into space, no doubt trying to distance himself from the memories he was describing. “Not iron, they were made to be strong enough so Loki could not break them, but weren’t otherwise changed. He was hidden, and since there was no light, not even Heimdall could find him. He saw Loki’s soul and the energy around him, but otherwise only darkness. We knew one thing, he was on Earth, somewhere north, as he caused unnaturally strong earthquakes whenever he strained against the bonds.

“3 years after the trial, the real murderer was found after a prophetic dream from a Volva, a sorceress who can see visions on occasion. Loki was cleared of the charge, of course, but we still hadn’t found him in all that time of searching. A year after that, Loki himself weakly called Heimdall’s attention from the surface of Earth by whispering his name, and was recalled through the Bifrost. He was almost blind, and his mouth was partially dissolved. He was starved for that whole time, and would have died if not for his magic. If it was me, I would have been almost dead due to the lack of food and water alone, never mind the serpent, and if I had survived that and returned to Asgard, even with my healing, I still would have lost my vision and ability to speak for a much longer time than he did.”

“How did he escape? The shackles he had before were engraved with some runes, I assume that is what restrained magic? If they were on the stone as well…” Nat trailed off, but Thor understood.

“He told us after, that while the runes prevented the use of magic, they did not stop him amassing it, so his reserves built until he was able to overcome the runes and shatter the rock itself, which injured him further, but allowed him to move, as well as kill the snake. There was also some leakage of his magic throughout the time he was there, as the runes weren’t done as well as they could have been, which caused the earthquakes. It took him a lot more time to amass the energy to get back to the surface afterwards, but he eventually had enough to teleport, which he really shouldn’t have done since he couldn’t see where he would end up, and might have become fused with something,” he shuddered as he frowned, as did I, “in his defense, he said ‘After the last four years, you worry most about that? Really, brother, I could have Walked while asleep.’ The ‘Walking’ that he said was different from normal walking, obviously, as he was trapped in an underground cavern with the entrance collapsed and sealed, so I assume it is another word for teleporting.”

Wait, he could teleport?

“While it’s nice to know more about his past, and I can now brag that I know something no professor in the world does, why wouldn’t you have told us that Loki can teleport at the Battle of New York? That would have been important, regardless that he didn’t seem to use it. Although that would explain how he got to Germany so fast, as he couldn’t take transport. Or he could have apparently shapeshifted. That too. Still, why didn’t you tell us?” I accused.

Thor was sheepish. “Mainly, I was overcome with anger and, as I have been warned to do in the past, overlooked the importance of a lot of what Loki can do. Also, he wouldn’t have used it. Teleporting is only useful if you can see where you want to end up, otherwise it is a real danger to re-form in the middle of something. The main way it is used is to put distance between yourself and an enemy, especially since almost all mages are women who can’t fight, only heal on a battlefield. They can transport the injured, young, or elderly further away, and reach a space to hide, or behind the warrior lines.”

Made sense, I suppose. One other thing occurred to me. “You said the myths wrote Loki to have six kids, but you’ve only mentioned five.”

The depressed look still left in Thor’s demeanor changed to one of complete embarrassment. He even flushed slightly red.

“Ah, that. Well. That was a rumour my shield-brothers and I started. I-. Uh. I don’t remember exactly what happened to make us spread it-.”

Natasha interrupted. “Yes you do.”

Thor flushed more. “Loki won a competition between my shield-brothers and myself, one that you do not need to know the details of, and will never hear them from me, but he cheated, and we couldn’t prove it. So, when there arose a situation where we could get back at him, we took it. Sleipnir is the oldest of Loki’s so-called children, and he is a black and grey, larger-than-normal, eight-legged horse.”

Then followed another story, this about a builder who had promised to construct fortification to keep intruders out within three seasons, with help only from his horse (some name starting with S that I had no hope to pronounce), in return for a goddess called Freya, the sun, and the moon (…how?). Loki was sent to sabotage the builder when he had nearly succeeded in the challenge, due to the unknown strength of the animal. (“Well that’s not very sporting,” I added then.)

“Loki went to the castle to gather something, then disappeared into the forest. He did not return for the last three days the builder had left. On the third morning, the wall was still not finished, and the deal broken. In the throne room, where Father told him he had failed, the builder became enraged, saying that a black mare had come out of the forest, and his horse had left him, following it, and only came back a few hours ago. He blamed the Aesir, and made to attack my father. Loki reappeared then, looking worn, and warned him against the stupidity, as Father had Gungnir, his spear, I had Mjolnir, Mother and Loki had magic, and there were multiple Einherjar in the room. He said that the builder should leave, as if he attacked the King he would be killed immediately. The builder looked at him in anger, then he seemed to recognise who Loki was, as he accused Loki of being the mare that distracted his horse.

“The reason for this accusation was from just a few months previously, when Loki had used illusions to change his appearance during a battle against a beast terrorising villages in Aflheim. He overlaid his image with another, larger male of the species, and while it was distracted by the challenge, the rest of us managed to catch it unawares from behind and kill it. Witnesses had thought him to shapeshift, and so spread that rumour accordingly. Honestly, I no longer know if he actually did shapeshift, and we just had no way of knowing.

To get us back on topic, I asked, “was he the mare?” and that raised questions in my head of if changing gender was possible when shapeshifting.

“I do not believe so. Regardless, the builder grew angry and, despite Loki’s warning, attacked Father, who killed him.”

Seems a bit harsh, I thought.

“Father dismissed the rest of us in the throne room, but when Loki asked for an audience with Father, my shield-mates and I remained. Loki asked to be able to stay in Aflheim for a little over a year. This request was granted, and he left as soon as the meeting was finished. As he walked out the door, we noticed his form flickered, betraying the fact that it was only his illusion. It was suspicious, but he had already disappeared, so we couldn’t ask what had happened. When he returned, he had with him an eight-legged foal. He later confirmed that the parents of the foal were the builder’s horse and the mare he used to distract it. He said this in private though, so the Warriors Three and I started the rumour that Loki was the mare, and the foal his. It didn’t spread, however, so we made it more elaborate. A year is the time needed for a horse to come to term, the reason Loki used an illusion was that he was stuck in the form of a mare until the foal was born, details like that. Loki protesting against it just spread the rumour easier. Evidently, it reached humans at some point, and became another one of the stranger myths.”

Thor had been blushing and avoiding our gazes for most of this retelling, but now that he was finished, he looked up. His expression was bittersweet, likely because this was before his brother went on his genocidal streak.

“Loki forgave us, but only because after a few months of teasing, he…ah…gave us no choice but to spread the truth.”

“This sounds like another good story. What did he do?” I asked. I had just sat back down after going to a corner to speak with Friday without disturbing the others. She said that she had narrowed the possibilities of where Loki and Flare had gone, but they had definitely separated, and there were a decent few pigeons that could still be them. (God, did that sound weird. When did my life become this crazy?)

“It was different for each of us. First, he simply asked, and we refused, but then he set about convincing us that it would be in our best interest not to keep the truth hidden any longer. The first two were the easier ones; Volstagg found that any food he tried to eat would suddenly rot before he could pick it up, Hogun could not stop smiling if he tried, nor speak any sentence shorter than ten words. They each only lasted a few days before yielding.

Fandral refused to say what happened to him until later. Loki had cornered him and put a knife very close to…ah, how shall I say…somewhere no man would ever want something sharp near,” the men in the room winced, while Nat just looked amused at us (she had probably used this method herself at least once). “And said he would use the knife unless he swore to start convincingly spreading the truth.”

“Weren’t they friends, or…shield-mates? At that point? That would be taking things a bit far. True, I would threaten some of the guys at school who annoy me, not to that extent, though, but I would never actually go through with it.” Peter spoke up.

Thor, who was flushing more and more red by the minute, turned to him. “As long as something isn’t fully severed, it does not take long to heal a wound with Healing Stones, which when crushed break into a powder, and this powder is more effective than almost any healing magic."

Nat was sitting lazily back in the corner of the couch, and I dreaded to think what she’d do to the next one of us who annoyed her after that piece of information. She glanced at me and must have understood something from whatever expression was on my face, as she smiled and winked. I gulped. Looks like I might have to cut back on my comments for a while.

“And for you? What was your weakness that he exploited?” I asked, quickly breaking my eye contact with Nat. I had noticed that for the Warriors Three, they had a particular aspect that Loki had known to go after each time.

“Simple. Before one of our spars, we made a deal that if he won in under ten minutes, I’d owe him a favour. I had no idea at the time what this favour was, but I didn’t think he would win, so I agreed. We each had one weapon, Mjolnir for me and Loki chose one of his longer daggers, and fought. He used a style that I hadn’t fought against before, and he did win, both the match and the deal, and so I was the last one he needed until the truth could be spread. The rumour mostly died down, and others only occasionally use it as an insult or to annoy Loki now. Since the races that had often visited Midgard, dwarves and elves usually, stopped their journeys, as you were, and I mean no offence, still quite primeval then, your myths have kept the stories in them.”

He was missing someone from when his friends had come for him. The Xena chick. “Don't you have another friend? A woman…ah…Sif or something, wasn’t it?” I asked.

Thor scowled, though there wasn’t too much actual anger in it. “She was part of Loki’s whole plot that made us take such actions. She laughed at our various predicaments, watching from the sidelines, with Loki beside her. He had no reason to go after her, in fact it was one of the few times they agreed together in something.”

“I am really curious as to what he did that made you start all this. It would have had to be pretty bad.  What was this contest?”

Thor looked to the side, abashed and blushing slightly. “I will never speak of it, and neither will the other Warriors Three. The only other two who know what happened are Sif and Loki, and since Sif has sworn not to, the only one who will tell is Loki, and I’m sure none of you will care to ask him, nor he to answer.”

I stood up. “Yeah, you got that right. So, now that story time is over, who wants a drink? I’ve still got some of the Asgardian mead that you couldn’t finish last time, Thunderbird.”

Nat looked at me disapprovingly (she did that a lot). “Tony, we are waiting for Friday to tell us where Flare and Loki could be, which means we may have to battle, which means that we must be sober.”

Thor joined in The Look. “Also, I know you are just trying to get me drunk enough to tell the story anyway.”

“Point Break, I would never even think about doing that.” I tried to sound sincere, but that is actually really hard, so it still sounded sarcastic (it was, but that’s not the point).

Thor crossed his arms.

“Okay fine, I was, but we know that you do tend to run your mouth when your drunk, more than me even. I mean, you did mention something about having to wear a dress before, all the while talking in a drunken slur.”

Thor silently thought something through. “If I tell you the full story behind that, and it is still sufficiently embarrassing I assure you, will you stop pestering me about the other one?”

Eh, a partial victory I suppose. “For now, yes. But seriously, does anyone want a drink? Cause if not, once I sit down, it’s too late.”

No one replied, so I plonked myself back onto my spot on the couch, and rubbed my hands together in anticipation for another entertaining story.

*******

It was nearly two and a half hours after Flare and Loki had escaped that Friday found something, but not anywhere near where we expected.

About 12.5 miles south from the coast at Long Beach, a reading not unlike the ones we find from the Bifrost whenever Thor came, had been made. It was smaller, definitely, but still easily able to be picked up by our new instruments, thanks to Jane and Darcy.

The alert from Friday called me away from Thor’s tales. He had become lost in the time when Loki was still his brother, and hadn’t yet changed into a stranger. None of us had the heart to stop him, especially since their adventures together were very thrilling. For many, I still couldn’t link the stories with what we had seen of Loki.

Once I had looked at what information Friday was giving me, I called to the others to join me, and told Thor of what I had guessed, with previous readings of the Bifrost graphed next to these new ones.

“You are right, Tony. I suspect that Loki and the girl took one of the Paths of Yggdrasil, as I recently found that travelling through one is very similar to the Bifrost, just with a shorter trip and less obtrusive arrival. Unfortunately, this means that they have left, as while we know the location of it, I do not know exactly where it is, nor how to use it. The last was in a difficult to spot and dangerous to navigate cave, and while I expect one would simply have to walk or fly through to use it, it may be more complicated than that.”

“Great, so, basically, they’re gone, and they’re somewhere we can’t hope to follow.”

“I apologise for not being of more use, Sir, but I believe they evaded my search very early on.”

“Nah, it’s alright, Friday. I’d imagine that they knew I would try to track them through you. Just…damn it!”

I punched the wall. It hurt.

Chapter Text

Tony’s POV

The energy spike and sighting of the pigeons was the first and last lead we had on where Flare and Loki went. There were seemingly random spikes for the few days after, but they were so small that it was almost impossible to get a fixed location for them, and they appeared in so many different countries in such a short time period that there was no point in the Avengers flying out.

All of us were frustrated, particularly Nat, Thor, and me, because we had lost them. Thor basically now always looked like he would leave to some deserted place and start the worst thunderstorm in the history of ever, while Nat spent hours a day in the training room. I was…

Actually I was pretty much normal. I stayed in the labs for hours, forgetting to eat and sleep, working on improving the Iron Man suit in any way I could, or anything else that came to mind. Peter helped me at times, but he mostly stayed away. I was still angry after all.

4 days after Flare and Loki disappeared, the whole Avengers team were called by the United Nations panel. Apparently, they had found something ‘of extreme concern’ that needed us.

We gathered in the room we allocated for receiving assignments. Once we were all seated and ready, Friday accepted the call, and a screen showing the face of Thaddeus Ross appeared.

“­­­­Ross,” I started, probably more obviously indifferent than I should have. None of us were fond of him, but as the panel had chosen him to be our overseer, we had no choice but to defer to him.

“Avengers,” he greeted in return. Without any preamble, he started immediately. “10 minutes ago, a large and fast-moving object was detected in space, and was confirmed to be on a direct collision course with Earth. The object was classified to be a UFO.”

We were all listening in rapt attention.

“It appeared from seemingly nowhere, but our main concern before the classification was that the object did not follow a straight path. Closer examination from the pictures picked up by satellites has shown that alongside the UFO are a few Leviathans like those seen in the Invasion in 2012. The UFO is believed to be carrying Chitauri.”

I froze, as did everyone else. ­­­­­Ross looked grave. Glancing at the other Avengers, I could tell that they were thinking the same as me. Loki and his appearance on Earth definitely had something to do with this.

Ross turned to someone off-screen. He nodded to whatever they had said, then blinked slowly, raising a hand to the bridge of his nose, as he turned back to us.

“The UFO is now directly over Manhattan, a few hundred miles up, but coming closer. An evacuation has been called to as many as possible over radio and television broadcasts, but it is not expected that many will get away in time. The UFO will be landing in minutes. The army and police force will help where they can, particularly as before to form barricades where needed. As you are already within the city and do not need to cross borders, you can proceed immediately. You all do as you see fit.” With that helpful advice, he cut off the call.

We sat frozen for a few precious seconds, before I stood up.

“Alright, let’s get our gear and move out. We’ll fly to wherever they decide to land as soon as we see them from here.”

*******

As soon as I saw the ship, I felt my heart rate speed up. It was an exact replica of the one I saw before falling unconscious in space. The main hull was positioned directly over Central Park, with the four branching arms creating a massive shadow that spanned the entire width of the park, even though it was still high off the ground.

I managed to avoid a panic attack, but couldn’t completely erase my feeling of dread inspired by the menacing sight.

Those of the Avengers who could were flying low to the ground, while T’Challa and Nat were on a motorbike, and Peter swung between buildings. The closer we got to the ship, the emptier the streets became.

As of yet, the Chitauri had not left the ship, and the Leviathans, we counted five, were only hovering near it. We did not want them to attack with their long-range guns before we were all close enough to retaliate, so we stayed together and out of sight.

When we reached the otherwise empty park, Nat and T’Challa took the lead, as they were the best at stealth. The trees formed a canopy that would make us hard to spot, but we would still be able to observe most of what was happening. We didn’t yet know what to expect. Considering that the ship was on Earth and not through a portal, it might be a lot harder than last time to stop them.

Suddenly, the hull opened and a huge number of Chitauri spilled out in their flying crafts. We were on the edge of the ‘Sheep Meadow’ clearing, and had an unobstructed view. Most went to the ground, and moved into formation, not unlike an army. They were much more organized than last time.

These Chitauri also looked different. They were bigger, a lot bigger, like the one that appeared on the helipad with Flare and Loki. Last time they were about as tall as an average human, now they were at least 7 feet, possibly more.

This time, they could also talk.

“They were here. The city reeks of their magic. They obviously didn’t have enough strength to make one of their proper travels.” The voice was grating, but carried far so the whole army could hear. The speaker was an even larger Chitauri, with completely gold armour, rather than the new silver the others wore. It had a hand to its head as it addressed the Chitauri.

The same one spoke again. I determined that it was the leader. “With the amount of energy they used, they will be weak. When we find them, if they are conscious, subdue the princeling first, and restrict its collar so neither can escape to somewhere else. Use the guns, and keep using them. One shot is not enough. Do not fall for their tricks like the retrieval sent out 203 Kirrixa days ago.”

It glanced around at the other Chitauri. “They arrived somewhere high up that way, probably on a building” it pointed behind it in the direction of Avengers Tower with the hand not on the side of its head. “If you must have a snack along the way, do so, but do not get left behind. You know your orders.”

It lowered its hands and strode forward until it was in the middle of the gathered army, with more flying overhead. The Leviathans hovered high above with the ship.

Before the army even took a step, though, the leader raised a hand. Using Friday’s zoom, I saw it sniff the air.

It turned directly to us as it shouted, “but before we find them, it seems we have a feast behind those trees. A royal feast, if I’m not mistaken.”

We froze, until Thor stepped out from our cover, Mjolnir held threateningly. The rest of us moved to stand beside him.

“Leave now, Chitauri, and return to where you came from. Midgard is under my protection, and that of the Avengers. You are not welcome here, and we will fight you if you do not heed my warning.”

All the Chitauri laughed. It was a loud and harsh cacophony of sound, which put us on edge. They looked completely unconcerned.

“You can try, Asgardian, but you will find we are not as easily defeated as our lower kin. We are High Chitauri, and none can stand to our might. We will not leave until we have what we came for. Allow us to find and take the princeling and its princess and, though we can’t speak for our quarry, we will aim to keep the damage we cause to your planet to a minimum,” it tried to give a smile once it stopped speaking, but it looked more like a grimace.

From next to me, Nat spoke up. “You just gave an order that would allow your army to eat human civilians as a ‘snack’ if they were hungry. Why should we believe your claim that you won’t cause unnecessary damage after that?”

“You also don’t mean a word of what you said to us. There are Chitauri that have their weapons ready to fire as soon as our backs are turned,” T’Challa drawled from next to her.

The smile dropped, and the leader’s hand rose back to the side of its head. All at once, every single Chitauri had a weapon trained on us. Some had swords or other blades, but most had the guns similar to the ones they used last time, and many also had another different gun attached to their hip.

“A pity. It would have been a quick and virtually painless death for you.” The leader drew a gun and a sword. “You will wish you had taken it soon enough.”

*******

The battle was a short one.

The Avengers leapt, flew, or swung into action. The Black Widow and Panther fired a few bullets before engaging a soldier each. Peter was tying up as many as possible with his webs, while Vision shot beams, and I used blasts and targeted missiles.

The Chitauri ran forward as one, and didn’t stop. Even when a web hit them and stuck them to the floor, they tore through it after only a few seconds of effort. Bullets and blasts had almost no effect. They were knocked over, usually into others behind them as well, but all stood up, completely unharmed.

Nat and T’Challa were the first to fall. Even with their astounding prowess in physical attacks, defence, and evasive manoeuvres, they disappeared in a crowd of jeering Chitauri.

Surprisingly, Vision was next.

“Sir! A net…” Friday warned me. Immediately, I turned and fired at the bundled projectile heading for Vis, but I was too late. The net came from behind him, out of his sight, and it spread to envelop him, shrinking until it fit his form, and prevented his movement. The momentum dragged him to the ground, and I lost sight of him.

Peter was at a disadvantage without any buildings, so jumped from tree to tree and slowed down those trying to catch him or another Avenger. Two flying vehicles came on either side and grabbed him from the air. While fighting one, the other took hold of his left wrist, crushing the slinger. The right slinger was also broken, then Peter was brought struggling between them to land.

Thor was smashing Chitauri left and right, and was doing the most damage, shattering armour and flinging soldiers away. He kept them from himself, and managed to kill a few too.

I was higher up, attempting to kill the Chitauri on the flying vehicles. I knocked them off, and let the uncontrolled vehicles crash into foot soldiers, while evading their shots.

Abruptly, the Chitauri’s weapons stopped firing, and the flying ones veered away from me, while those on the ground left Thor. I came down to hover behind him, and waited for their next move. We would defeat them, or go down fighting like the others.

The army stalked around until they surrounded us in a wide circle. Nat, T’Challa, and Peter were brought forward, bound with an excessive amount of chains, and forced to their knees, with a Chitauri standing either side of each. Vision was in the net, being dragged along the floor by three soldiers. The sun glinted off it, showing the net was a weave of thin metal chain links.

He was still trying to escape, but every time he started to fire a beam, or phase through the net, his form flickered and he made a low pained and frustrated cry. I didn’t know what the net did, but it had captured one of our two strongest current Avengers with little effort.

Thor halted in his gathering of lightning, the clouds above that had darkened without me realising losing some of their swirling movement. I prevented the gauntlets from firing a blast, though kept them ready.

A line of Chitauri parted in front of us, and the leader approached. “Drop your weapon, Asgardian Prince, and do not fire. Your friends will pay the price if you do, namely, the youngest of your group.” Its grimace-smile was back.

Those holding Peter ripped the mask off his suit, and held him securely when a knife was held to his neck. Peter’s eyes were wide and watching what he could see of the blade.

I still held my hands up, but depowered the gauntlets until they didn’t glow. Thor brandished Mjolnir, but didn’t move any further.

“Weapons. Down,” it commanded, eyeing Mjolnir in particular.

With a grunt, Thor attached his hammer to his belt, glaring at the leader. I hesitated, thinking if there was any way out of this. I could use my missiles to target those holding the others down? No, they were chained and couldn’t run. More soldiers would just take their place, and I didn’t have enough to kill all of them. I wasn’t even sure missiles would work, with their armour and faster reflexes.

I took too long, and the knife started an agonisingly slow trail down Peter’s arm, from his shoulder. He stayed silent for as long as possible, but when pushed deeper he squeezed his eyes shut and gave a strangled scream.

Nat and T’Challa, kneeling on the ground, kept their posture proud, seemingly unaffected, though I knew they were wishing as I was that looks could kill.

I hurriedly lowered my arms. “Stop. Stop, I’m sorry. Don’t hurt him, please.” I was embarrassed that I was begging, but I was meant to protect Peter and now he was being hurt because of me.

The knife was removed, though blood still streamed to stain the grass. Peter looked at me through his pain, clearly trying to get Thor and me to leave.

“Surrender, and they won’t harm the child anymore,” the leader stated gleefully. It was enjoying our resistance, I thought. More chains were passed through the ranks of Chitauri.

Thor and I looked at each other, then nodded, keeping our heads angled to the ground. Chitauri came forward, and bound Thor quickly and tighter than the others, making it impossible to draw Mjolnir. The chains had runes on them, similar to the shackles Flare and Loki were wearing before. I assumed that they blocked magic.

They approached me, and immediately tore the faceplate off. Two grabbed hold of my arms, while a third used its strength to pull the gauntlets and leg plates away, the metal screeching. When enough was uncovered, they then bound me too with chains around my legs, arms, and torso, like the others.

Each of the Avengers looked at each other sadly, knowing the Chitauri would soon kill us no matter what they had said, then shut off all emotions. We would face death as we had faced every other challenge. Together.

The leader stalked in front of Thor. “Another Asgardian prince. The Master will be pleased with us. Particularly since we have reclaimed the Mind Gem for Him as well.” It left Thor and Vision, and spun in a slow circle, glancing at each of the Avengers. “And we have a feast for our…” it cut off when it stopped at me.

“You.”

Chapter Text

Tony’s POV

“You,” the Chitauri leader focused its full attention on me.

Even with its menacing yellow eyes a foot away from mine, I couldn’t resist irritating it. “Me.” I acted completely unconcerned, with a little head tilt and smile.

It growled. “I suspected who you were, but I hardly dared hope that I could be the one to kill you. You are who destroyed a whole ship of our kin! You will die where you stand for that, and we will eat before we start our search. Remove its armour,” it instructed the Chitauri, without taking its eyes off mine.

They pulled the Iron Man suit apart, piece by piece. I struggled, even though I knew it was useless. There was no getting out of this one.

When the red back of the helmet was off, one of them punched me, hard, in the head. Dazed, I stopped moving as the rest of the suit was removed. The others were also struggling against their bonds, but were unable to slip out of the chains.

The leader grabbed me by the neck, lifting me up. Oh, not again. I thought, remembering when Loki had done the same. Then I realised that I was actually going to die this time, and tried twisting out of its grasp. I stopped when I felt a knife against my neck.

I didn’t want to have my alien killer as the last thing I saw, so I looked at the Avengers. All of them, even Nat, were horrified, and started yelling. With my blood rushing in my head, I couldn’t determine what exactly they said; it was all just a cacophony of sound that blended together. Thor strained against his chains with all his Asgardian strength, and looked surprised when they didn’t break. They must have been much stronger than the chains on the others.

The blade had just pierced my skin when I heard it.

Whump. Whump.

 A loud, repeated sound that reverberated unnaturally, like a purposefully-overdramatic microphone playback (I should know). The knife paused.

“They’re here,” the leader whispered excitedly. No one but me heard. It withdrew the knife and my feet found the ground as it lowered its arm. Blood was trickling down the side of my neck from the small, stinging cut.

Whump. Whump.

The sound was even louder now, echoing around the city, seeming to come from all directions, regardless that we were in Central Park with no buildings. Abruptly, the leader handed me to two other Chitauri, and walked forward to address its army. One of my new handlers unsheathed a knife and held that against my neck in the same place as the leader had. As if I could even try to escape bound and suit-less as I was.

“They are coming. Draw your weapons, and stay close to the prisoners. It will be harder for them to use spells that won’t hurt the Protectors of Terra as well.” It looked at Vision, then grunted. “Keep the net restraining the Stone. We will not be able to hold it otherwise. Now that we only have one of the nets left, use it on the princeling at my command. The guns will subdue the other for a time, and their chains can do the rest.”

Whump. Whump. It was louder still.

“Move, now. They could come from anywhere.” The Chitauri army hurried to come closer to us, leaving a much smaller circular clearing. The ones still on flying vehicles hovered just above the rest of the army. All their weapons were ready, though pointed down as they didn’t yet have a target.

Whump. Whump.

I couldn’t place what it was.

Whump. Whump.

We waited in silence.

The next sounds did not come a few seconds later like the others had. For a minute, the silence continued. The Chitauri then starting chittering nervously, and the helmet the leader wore twisted as it moved its head around. They still expected something to come.

Two large airborne shapes suddenly barreled into view from between the buildings of the city, aiming straight at the ship overhead.

Dragons. I didn’t believe what I was seeing, but two dragons, one mainly green, the other mainly red, charged into two of the Leviathans, landing on their target, though keeping their wings open. Although the reptiles were almost the same size as the armoured beasts, I noticed that the Leviathans didn’t lose altitude (then again, they shouldn’t have been able to fly at all, seeing as they were practically swimming through the air rather than adhering to the small, insignificant matter of physics).

The green one stabbed its long front claws into the side of the neck of its Leviathan, straight through the armoured plates, and wrenched, tearing grey flesh and making a link of its black blood between the wound and its paw before falling away. It took off as the Leviathan bellowed then careened downwards.

At the same time as this, the red dragon opened its mouth, twisted its long neck sideways, then locked its jaws around its quarry’s head. This attack was closer, and I could see blood dripping off its snout when it released the second dead Leviathan.

Red flew closer to us and the army, flapping its wings more rapidly, hovering, making soft whump sounds each beat. The phalanges of the wings were the same red its hide, but the membrane had a mix of colours that, when moved, glinted in patterns like a raging forest fire. The tip of each finger ended in a black claw, with a larger one at the top where the ridges met. The wing itself branched from the powerful shoulder, and continued to connect to the skin until the joint of its hip.

Gravity drew its hindquarters down a bit so we could see its underbelly. The reptile was not solely red, as I had thought; there were smooth chest plates of large gold scales, overlapping so they pointed towards its rear in open-based triangles. They started from just under its chin and continued downward until the beginning of the tail, becoming smaller to fit, then stopping after a few more feet. These scales weren’t as vibrant as the red ones that covered the rest of it, but were so pure it was like they were made of golden ore and not simply an organic pigmentation.

The dragon had four pairs of small spikes following its jaw line at the back of the snout, each larger and longer than the one before. On top of its head, two straight horns extended backwards, as long again as its skull. It had four claws on each paw, while the hind legs also had a small dew-claw higher up on the back of the shin. Each of these protrusions of keratin, as well as a long, flat, teardrop-shaped tip on its tail were pure black, not ivory as on most pictures of dragons.

As I looked on in apprehension of what it would do, it tilted its head and neck, in a manner similar to a dog. It observed us in turn, scanning with gleaming reptilian irises of a startling mix of gold in the middle and red on the outside.

The Chitauri started to fire at it, but missed as it snarled and flew up and away, twisting fluidly until its back was to us.

Red joined Green in the air as two more Leviathans flying side by side headed toward them. They rushed together, and then released white- and blue-hot flames into the beasts’ mouths. They flew over the falling Leviathans, and both let out a deafening roar in victory.

The fifth and last Leviathan was bigger yet somehow faster than the others. It thrashed in the air preventing the dragons from getting too close. Green and Red looked at each other, then spouted more jets of flame, herding it between them. When it was where they wanted, both bit into its middle, then tore it apart.

The Leviathan screeched as its armour plates fell away, and its body separated, a gruesome string of entrails joining the pieces together. More black blood spurted, and Green swerved sharply to avoid it, while Red leisurely flapped its wings and flew higher, uncaring of the few splatters that reached its hide. They released the final Leviathan and with a motion of their heads threw it forcefully into the ground.

By this time, the flying Chitauri had approached them in a wave. The dragons used fire on some, but not as many as I suspected. I saw why. The fire didn’t do much to the Chitauri, only killing them if it hit straight on. The flyers were still a fair distance away, and even though they were very accurate, the dragons couldn’t kill many at once.

When the fleet reached them, however, each vehicle exploded against an unseen force field. I distinctly saw the reptiles smile. The flyers had come in one huge group, and couldn’t avoid the wall at their high speeds. Within seconds, there were only the metal pieces falling from the sky. Luckily, none hit us, though branches snapped from trees as they were pelted by the debris.

The dragons glided toward us, and they slowly shrank. Just before they reached the ground at the edge of the clearing, they flapped once and twisted their front halves up, and landed on their back legs, then folded their wings to rest along the length of their sides as they let their forelegs touch down. All of this was done so simultaneously, that the only sounds were from a gentle rustling as a brush of wind picked up some scattered leaves, and those two soft thuds of the dragons’ paws hitting grass.

When they straightened, they were only about 15 feet tall, their heads just barely reaching the tops of the trees, as opposed to their previous 50. Green was slightly bigger than Red, though only in height and length. Both were slender in the breadth of their chest, though not to a scale of looking unhealthy, young, or weak; more for a greater aerodynamic shape. A massive chest cavity on both held space for their lungs, and as they breathed in and out steadily, the light caught on their scales, deepening the colour of each iridescent jewel.

The dragons’ long necks were held at an angle so they could look down at us, looking particularly menacing. Their snouts were stained black from the blood of the Leviathans, and they used this to disconcert the army of Chitauri. Their mouths opened slightly, showing normally-white teeth as long as a man’s arm similarly stained, and a pink tongue that slowly licked some of it away.

The tips of two long tails swished around, showing off the deadly tips. While Red’s tailpiece was slightly rounded where it met the flesh, Green had a diamond-shaped blade with sharp angles. Their horns and paws were the same, as well as the sections of colour, though obviously rather than being ruby red it was emerald green, even the fire-like pattern on its wings. Its eyes were slightly darker gems than its scales, with no gold at all.

Wait…red, black, and gold together was reminiscent of fire and ashes, while green, black and gold meant…

It hit me suddenly.

“Flare and Loki. You’re Flare and Loki. What is happening. What the f-.”

“Silence,” one of the Chitauri growled at my back.

Green, no, that would be Loki, huffed. Red, Flare, made a single chuff sound which I took to be a laugh. Loki then opened his maw and spoke.

“Another that hides behind its army.” Even as a dragon, Loki’s voice was smooth and cultured, though lower and more resonant. His large green eyes meticulously scanned the gathered force. He scoffed before he continued. “Chitauri commanders seem to all be the same, only appearing when there is no danger to themselves.”

Flare made an abrupt motion with her head toward us. She then focused on a point just beside and behind me, Loki’s gaze snapping to the same place.

I turned my head as much as I dared, and from the corner of my eye saw the leader walk out from its surrounding crowd. It was sneering.

“Look who has come to us without even having to start a search. Thanos’ disobedient pets.”

“Pets, you call us,” Flare showed her sharp teeth again in a smile. “Says the one who has been sent like a dog to tote and fetch. Ooh, what did he say?” Her voice changed to something deeper. Darker. “They must be brought back, no matter the cost, or possibly,” her voice reverted back briefly, “I don’t care how many of you die, insect, they are more important, and must be captured alive.” The new voice disappeared. “Must be belittling, knowing you rank less than two prisoners,” she hissed.

The leader’s hand was clenching and unclenching in rage. “Enough! Do not disrespect your Master!” It roared (nowhere near as intimidating as the dragons’ beforehand). Flare and Loki looked amused more than anything. “He is not pleased with your escape. We have been tasked to retrieve you, so He can mete out your new punishment.” It made to continue, but Flare interrupted.

“Aw, and he sent 400 ground High Chitauri, 70 flyers, and 5 Leviathans just for us.” She raised a clawed paw to her chest. “I’m flattered, truly.” It was said with such blatant mockery, the paw held in such a human way on a mythical beast, that it made me have to hold back a snort. “Or, did he send the whole armada? Perhaps every high soldier available? Actually, he didn’t know where we went, did he? So you assigned this little army to Terra, as we would likely be here. Oh, General, you shouldn’t have.”

Even though he was a literal alien species, I could tell that the leader was flooded with anger at this moment. His face was mostly covered by his helmet, but his jaw was set tight and teeth grinding together. Still, he hid it quite well.

When the leader made to speak, Loki took over. “Flare, I have informed you repeatedly that you do not antagonise the opposition. It often leads to all sorts of disasters, as you know very well.” His signature grin from the footage of his first arrival slowly grew on his reptilian face. “No, you leave the antagonising to me.

“Your attempts to apprehend us were, frankly, terrible and doomed to fail. I recognise that this is the first time any of the High Chitauri have been allowed to leave their bases, but really, I expected more from the new so-called ‘unbeatable’ army. You sent out the whole flying fleet at once, allowing us to kill them all with a method that we have already used previously. Also, as a side-note, I believe it is called, how do you possibly expect to catch an agile flyer if your machines are still unable to bank properly?”

Loki continued in this way, criticising everything that the Chitauri leader had decided to do, with big words, and in great detail. My attention was swiftly taken away from that though when the two Chitauri holding me stiffened, and the air about 8 feet in front of me shimmered like a mirage, until the form of a person was visible.

I stopped myself from flinching back just in time, though I felt my breathing hitch.

“Stark, do you see me?” She said. She, because the form before me was Flare. I glanced to the dragons, and both were still there, but the person in front of me was unmistakable.

She was much healthier than the last time I saw her, despite it only being a few days later. Although she was wearing black form-fitting clothes, quite similar to Nat’s cat-suit though two piece and with a modest circle neck, her form was significantly more fleshed out than just the skin and bones from her emaciation. Her wings were visible, but folded, not quite scraping the floor. Her flaming hair was in a neat braid, disappearing behind her head.

I took this in silently, while in my mind, I was panicking. The Chitauri would surely hear her, she had spoken in a normal voice after all, and would kill me. I prepared for the strike.

But they still didn’t move.

“Stark, it’s alright. They cannot see or hear me, or the real you. You can speak if you wish. No one but you and me are able to be aware of what is happening here, even if they were looking at us. I have set an illusion.”

“How are you- why are you here?” I whispered. I accepted the fact that no one knew what was going on, as even the two Chitauri hadn’t reacted, but I still didn’t feel comfortable talking.

“Part of our plan.”

Some of my snarky personality had returned, thankfully. “Suitably vague.”

She smiled. “I need to touch you so I can free you. May I come closer? Do not move the chains if you can help it.”

“Why?” Petulant, I know, but I didn’t trust her.

She sighed in annoyance. “The two Chitauri are frozen, and are not aware. They will not remember this, instead they will believe they were watching Loki like all the others. But when I release them from freezing, they will be able to tell if the chains have moved, as it will be a sudden change for them. Now, hurry up. I don’t have too much time. May I come closer?”

I looked into her eyes, and saw apprehension and slight pleading, but she didn’t seem to be lying. Then again, she and Loki seemed to be best of friends, so I probably wouldn’t even be able to tell.

Regardless, I didn’t have much choice. I nodded agreement, and in less than half a second she had traversed the distance and had a hand at the base of my left shoulder. I barely even saw her move. I managed not to jump. Again.

Her eyes, slightly below mine, had gold specks flickering through the returned deep blue-green hue. She focused on her hand, and it glowed red and gold. She stayed still for a while, doing…something. After a second, I let my mind relax again (for if she hadn’t killed me yet, she probably wasn’t going to), and picked up on a slight smell of Melaleuca oil. It was pleasant, not overly strong, and emanating from the girl in front of me. Was she wearing perfume? For a battle?

Flare spoke, breaking me out of my observations. “Walk forward,” she muttered, still focusing.

“But…” I started, about to mention the chains and knife that prevented me from moving.

“Do it. You are incorporeal and your bonds will not hinder you.”

She was right. I felt my arm sink through the chain that held me. It was weird, a sort of tingling, though it wasn’t particularly unpleasant. I took a step as insisted. Flare guided me to a clear spot a decent distance away, and made a gesture with her free hand, then released me and moved back, giving me space.

I looked at where the two Chitauri were still motionless, noticing that the chains hadn’t dropped to the ground. They were defying gravity, held up by some invisible force.

“Around your feet in a circle, the air will seem to flicker. That is a fixed spell set so you cannot be seen, and will keep you incorporeal so you can’t be hurt either. You can be heard once I stop this cloaking spell, though, and you must stay inside the circle. Whatever happens. Stay. There. Until you are completely safe.” She looked straight into my eyes, and held my gaze. “Please, if there is one time that you follow what I say, make it now.”

I didn’t say anything, but she seemed to take my silence as acceptance.

“Oh, and quick warning. The spell I’m going to use next might be a little…shocking?” She shrugged slightly. “Just to let you know.”

She closed her eyes, while I felt a bit uneasy at her words.

I watched her, but didn’t notice anything for a few seconds. Then, her body started to change. It became taller, and wider in the shoulders. Her wings disappeared. Her hair became short and brown, and her skin more tanned. Her clothing changed to a looser black shirt and pants, though the left shoulder had a bloodstain on it.

I was stunned. My brain stopped working until the person in front of me opened their now-brown eyes. I was looking at me.

All I could say was, “do I really look that bad right now?”

Fony (Flare-Tony, Fake-Tony, and Phony all at once?! I was even better at making puns than I already knew) had blood not only on the shoulder, but also matted in his hair. The cut on his neck was still bleeding, though it was red blood, like a normal human. It was deeper than I had thought. The clothes were in disarray from my previous twisting, and torn in some places, threads weaving through the holes.

He smiled. (Even my usual beard had grown! How did that work?) “Yes, if not worse.” The words were spoken in my voice so exactly that it sent a shiver down my spine. “You’d judge an image of yourself less harshly than another. Now, stay.” He pointed, somehow copying my posture and action as well, even though I knew Flare had never seen much of me.

“Alright. Whatever you’re gonna do, I’ll leave you to it.” To myself I muttered, “this is a dream, no, nightmare, with Chitauri, dragons, magic, and Loki for God’s sake. Definitely a nightmare.”

Fony just smiled one of my smiles. “Loki being here is nightmare-worthy?” He glanced at the man…dragon…mentioned, who was still insulting the Chitauri, and taking great pleasure in it as well. I didn’t know how he was still going, he didn’t have much to work with, but the soldiers were visibly shaking in fury, chattering in clicks and hisses. “He’ll love that. But anyway, he’ll stop soon, so better play my part.”

At the conclusion of his sentence, he walked to where the chains and Chitauri were still held frozen, whistling an unidentifiable tune, and then, to my shock, turned and stepped backwards through the knife and chains. He arranged the floating metal so it was in the same position as it had been on me, not letting himself go through them again, until he had completely taken my place.

I stared. He even put the knife back into its position, completely unconcerned about the fact that the Chitauri could kill him with hardly a movement of their hand.

“Don’t look so concerned. As I said, it’s part of our plan. I’ll be fine,” he directed to me. He grimaced suddenly, and licked around his mouth without opening it then swallowed. “Ugh. Not that they’re ever nice anyway, but Chitauri taste absolutely dis-gus-ting as a human,” he muttered, to himself I guessed, before taking the wary expression I held before, as well as a bit of humour. It would have been my reaction exactly if I had been listening to Loki the whole time; suppressing my amusement as much as possible, as I shouldn’t be finding someone who tried to kill me funny.

The Chitauri unfroze and started to shake and growl like all the others around us just as Loki began to finish his speech. “The only action you took that was actually intelligent was holding hostages.” He paused, then seemed to reconsider. “Though I wouldn’t be surprised if we interrupted before you ate them, ravenous beasts as you are. You were evidently about to kill the Man of Iron.”

And suddenly all eyes were on me, or rather, Fony, who flinched minutely, then resolutely stood as tall and confident as possible, despite the chains. The acting was superb. He locked eyes with Loki, and gave a barely perceptible nod. I would have missed it if I hadn’t been watching for it.

The Flare dragon illusion was about to speak when the leader started to walk closer to Fony. It took away the knife and held it to Fony’s throat itself. Fony turned his head as far as he could to eye the arm and the blade.

“The Protectors of Terra may be our hostages, but there are terms that if you both follow, I will be willing not to kill them. If you ignore the offer, or break the terms, the Man of Iron will be the first to die.”

Chapter Text

Tony’s POV

I held my breath. I had no idea of what they’d planned, but even though Loki knew that it was Flare’s life the leader was threatening, not mine, he was unconcerned. In fact, his smile grew, as did that of the illusion Flare, before disappearing altogether to what counted as a blank expression on a dragon.

I couldn’t believe that the leader was actually holding our lives against them. It thought they would, what, surrender to save those who defeated Loki before?

But apparently it did. “Swear to shift to your normal forms and correctly secure these shackles on yourselves,” it lifted a hand to its head, and one of the soldiers moved out of the army with two more sets of the shackles, identical to what Flare and Loki had come with. Every other Chitauri kept its gun trained on the dragons as it approached, and put the shackles on the ground a short distance away. Loki and illusion Flare grinned down at the lone soldier, exposing their teeth and making it scurry away again.

“Once our agreement is made, neither of you will harm anything or anyone, in any way, and will not speak.”

The two dragons, without looking away from the leader, started conversing lowly in a strange, lilting language. They had possibly chosen to speak at that moment on purpose to be annoying, but were covering by seemingly discussing the terms. The leader glowered, but continued. “You will not resist when we bind you with the nets, nor try to avoid them.”

The dragons smiled at this, but continued discussing at the end of its sentence. I was confused, as the leader had said they only had one left.

“Finally, you will not…”

Illusion-Flare interrupted, now in English. “There is no point going on, General. We know the terms. They are always the same kind of thing.”

“Besides,” Loki continued, “we have come to a decision.”

The leader looked smug, and started to withdraw the knife from Fony’s neck. The other Avengers were wide eyed, completely surprised, as I was, at what was happening. Then I thought a bit. What was the point of replacing me with Flare if they were going to do this? They had obviously predicted it.

“No,” the dragons said together, and I gaped.

The leader hissed, and put the knife back. Fony spoke as he unsuccessfully struggled to get away. “Come on, Reindeer Games. You’re gonna let them kill me when I haven’t even been able to give you the drink I promis…”

“Silence, Hive-Slayer,” the leader grated, and dug the knife in, making another deep cut. It also hit Fony in the head again, making him sag and eyes glass over for a second. Peter looked away from this and instead glanced at Loki and what he thought was Flare pleadingly, but Loki ignored him.

I made to step out of the circle, but felt a recognised pressure in my head.

‘No! Stay there! I am acting, I am fine. This is the plan, trust me. Everything is going as we expected. Stay there or you will ruin it!’

I heard Flare’s voice, and looked to Fony. He was glaring at me, while still pretending to weakly struggle. I hesitated. He obviously wasn’t fine. The new cut was already close to life threatening, and the leader kept the knife close to the wound, ready to make it even deeper.

‘Stay, Stark.’

I didn’t want to, but I nodded, and then stopped moving. I wanted to help, somehow, but if he said it was under control, I’d listen. It was his life on the line right now.

“We will kill them! I will kill this one now, and the others next, if you do not comply!”

The dragons looked completely at ease with the situation, though Illusion-Flare glanced once at Fony, seemingly nervous though that made no sense, and her long, scaly tail was slithering slowly along the ground around her feet, somehow still making a swishing sound despite being incorporeal.

 “Go ahead,” Illusion-Flare announced.

The leader’s eyes narrowed, then it stated confidently, “I say you are bluffing. Do not try to trick me, you will lose more than you bargained for.”

Loki and Illusion-Flare raised their heads and looked down at the gathered army haughtily, then spoke together, “There isn’t anything to lose. They mean nothing to us, and you are all fools if you thought they ever did.”

*** (skip to next break if you don’t want to read a description of what happens when someone’s throat is cut) ***

Seemingly in slow-motion, the leader roared and sharply drew the knife across Fony’s neck. Time returned to normal and blood spurted as a major artery was severed, staining the grass red. Peter had already been on the verge of tears, but with a strangled “NO! TONY!”, water began flowing freely down his cheeks. The other Avengers were shocked, so much so that they couldn’t make a sound.

Fony had started to yell in pain, but the sound never came since the trachea had already been severed. His eyes were shut tight for a second before blowing wide. Fony tried to take gasping breaths, but the air came through the gaping slit rather than his mouth, pulling blood in and making him gurgle then cough as he choked. Within seconds his legs went slack in unconsciousness, the awareness in his (…my…) brown eyes fading, before they fluttered shut. His chains clanged together with a faint chiming like bells, in direct contrast to the horror before me.

Held up only by the grasp of the leader and two other Chitauri, his heart continued to beat, draining his body until eventually there wouldn’t be enough left to pump.

*** (skip to here) ***

It was weird, but most of all horrifying, watching myself die. That was supposed to be me bleeding out in front of my friends.

Loki had betrayed Flare. She was convinced there was a plan, and now she was dead. I hoped the Chitauri caught him, and made him suffer worse. Much worse.

Somehow, the circle around my feet didn’t flicker, and I remained invisible. I had prepared to be seen as soon as the spell’s caster died like in most stories and movies, but what did I know of magic? I didn’t move, as I would surely have been killed if seen.

Loki tutted. “What a waste. We warned that threatening the Man of Iron would have no influence over us. Now you’ve lost some of your fresh meat.” He gave a patronising smile, and in that moment, I imagined myself with strength enough to choke him, watch him panic as he struggled to breathe. I shuddered as the image disappeared.

The leader raised its gauntlet now turned red with blood to its mouth and licked some off. I hadn’t quite believed Nat when she accused the army of wanting to eat fleeing human civilians, but now? The thoughts were disturbing on so many levels.

The leader then released Fony’s body, letting the two soldiers take him fully. It stalked over to the other Avengers, visibly angry, and instead held the knife to Thor, aiming for his heart. Its jaw was clenched, and it was breathing harder than before, but seemed to calm again once it had the knife in place. It flashed a glare filled with loathing at the dragons.

“The Man of Iron was a Terran, a human. Asgardians care nothing for them, though I thought you would have wanted to keep all the ‘Avengers’ alive. You have over a thousand years of love for the Crown Prince, however, and from the Mind we all know how many times you screamed for Thor...” Loki cut him off with a loud snarl, eyes flashing dangerously and lowering his torso for an attack of potentially epic proportion. The Avengers, including myself, and some of the Chitauri flinched back, but the leader only smiled in satisfaction at the reaction its words had caused.

Illusion-Flare’s tail raised from the ground and her lithe body twisted slightly so she could curl it in the air in front of Loki’s chest, silently warning him not to advance and risk getting caught. Knowing that the real Flare was dead, I realised that Loki was probably acting and controlling the illusion to pretend the leader had actually struck a nerve. Why? Some of my own hatred faltered at that realisation.

Loki’s black claws dug deep grooves into the ground as he restrained himself from moving toward the leader, but still held his crouched position. Illusion-Flare returned to her own original position, watching him for any hint that he would ignore her previous warning.

“I think that if I threatened your brother, you may find my terms more reasonable?” The leader continued, as if there had been no interruption.

“And you may find that I’d rather watch you all burn than be dragged back to Thanos in chains,” Loki growled.

Flare made no objection this time, and Loki’s wings unfurled a bit from his sides as he sucked in a large breath, flames gathering already at the back of his throat, still staring directly at and aiming for the leader.

Before he could release the fire, the leader made a sharp guttural sound, and a gathering of Chitauri separated revealing a long, sliver, cannon-like object. This fired another of the nets that had trapped Vision. It flew at massive speeds, almost invisible now that I didn’t have Friday. Close to Loki, it expanded to a size that would surround him entirely, at a rapid pace that should have been impossible. I decided it must have been magic (though I still hated that word).

Loki had no time to dodge. The net closed and started to shrink.

And Loki flickered then disappeared in a flash of green light.

Illusion-Flare smiled widely, and she began to morph. Her red scales turned green, and she grew slightly bigger, until the lost image of Loki was replaced.

“Will anyone ever not fall for that?” Loki smirked. “And you’ve used your last net. Such a shame. Seems that if we try to trick you, we will not lose much at all. I do believe we are the benefitting party in this situation, actually.”

The leader had frozen, but quickly recovered. “I can still kill your brother! Where is it? Tell me where the child is, now! Or I can use the Gem on you again and cause you both extreme pain to reveal its position!” Loki’s smirk dropped slightly at this. I gaped. “Tell me where it is!”

“She is a lot closer than you would be comfortable with,” Loki said with a smug expression that he had quickly recovered. I noticed his emphasis on ‘she,’ which then made me realise how the Chitauri had always been using ‘it.’

I had no more time to think of this, as the sound of metal screeching and then a loud snap was heard, and the two Chitauri holding Fony clutched at their throat with a choking sound, dropping the body. While they fell to the ground, Fony was uncovered to be in a crouch, with two short knives dripping with black blood held in his hands, and the chains that had bound him in pieces around his feet. Red blood was also still gently running in rivulets, soaking into his shirt and dripping to the floor.

Quickly, he made a flip amid the scratch of ripping material, and a dark brown blur shot at the leader, faster than it could react and use the knife it held against Thor. When it was hit, the Chitauri was swept through the air, to land hard on its back a fair distance from the Avengers.

The dark brown shape returned to Fony, and I saw that his wings had returned, and I have to say, wings on my image looked excellent. Even with the gaping cut on his neck and a shirt that was almost falling off, he managed to be threatening.

His features morphed back to Flare’s, and wings turned from brown (my exact hair colour brown. Huh) to the previous mix of warm colours I had seen in the infirmary. At the same time the shift to herself took place, thin lines of flames started at her neck, fingers, and toes, and travelled quickly to the center of her chest. In their wake, black material clear of blood appeared until she was back in the black cat-suit edged with deep red as before. The change took less than a second. The wound on her neck was still there, though most of her blood that had spilled on the ground vanished as if it was never there, while what remained on the leader’s glove shifted to red-gold. Absently, I saw that it was more gold than before, and again concluded it must be something linked to magic.

She flung out one arm toward the dumbfounded Avengers, though not looking away from the leader, mouthing something silently. In a flash of light, they vanished. I looked around in a panic, and noticed a similar flash outside of the army, close to but behind Illusion-Flare-turned-Loki.

The leader regained its feet with a growl at Flare. “I should have guessed you had something planned,” it called across the space between them. Flare shrugged, in a ‘you really should have known,’ kind of gesture, but didn’t reply aloud.

I realised I had looked away from Loki for too long when I heard a roar. The dragon stalked forward, shrinking and changing shape disturbingly, and within a few seconds there was Asgardian Loki running on his own toward the massive army of Chitauri. His armour was full black and green leather now, with diagonal cuts and asymmetrical overlaps like always, but with an open collar, virtually no metal, and the only gold colourings present were on some trimmings of material, and a small downward-pointing arrowhead under his collar. Lead by a line of green light similar to Flare’s previous flames, an emerald green cape grew from underneath his shoulder guards, and then started to billow majestically behind him, making him seem like he was flying across the ground. He wasn’t wearing his helmet of horns, and held two silver knives with blue handles, rather than a spear.

He tossed these knives while moving and caught them so he held the blade, then flung them full force. They were too fast to follow, and I could only tell where they went when the two Chitauri closest to him fell, bleeding from their neck like the ones Flare had killed.

More knives of the same colour appeared in his hands when he flexed his arms. He reached the rest of the army, most of which were heading for him, and started fighting like Nat would, elegant flips in the air and accurate strikes using every limb, with all the power of an Asgardian behind them. He used the occasional burst of green magic as well. Both his strength and his magic sent his opponents flying ridiculously high into the air, but they always got back up unharmed. He was quickly covered by Chitauri, though he didn’t go down.

The leader looked at this with a half-smile. “How long do you think the princess will last, alone against 300 Chitauri? I give it a minute.” Flare’s face moved into a snarl, but she choked before she could make a noise. She spat a globule of red-gold blood onto the grass, then settled for glaring. “And you can’t even speak! Shame I couldn’t cut the throat of the Silvertongue this time. That always manages to silence it for a while.”

Flare just made her glare even more menacing, before she slowly, gracefully, started moving toward her opponent. The leader did the same, though noticeably less graceful, and they began to circle each other.

When the leader next made to speak, Flare abruptly threw a small fireball. It managed to dodge, just, then growled and raised its hand to its head again. The Chitauri around the circle who were not already occupied with or heading toward Loki aimed the new guns at her. The bullets they fired were small and silver.

Flare was a whirlwind with her knives. She dodged as many as she could, and sliced the ones she couldn’t avoid with her blades, even while in the air. Her avoidance drew her closer to my position.

It was while her back was turned that the leader made a move. It drew its own gun and aimed for the exposed skin between her wings, open as they were slicing bullets with the claws.

‘Flare, behind you!’ I sent the warning without thinking as the gun fired. I was thankful that I didn’t yell it out loud, as someone would have heard me for sure.

She understood at least part of it, as she tried to turn to cut it, but she was too slow.

The bullet hit her at shoulder height, directly on her spine.

Chapter Text

Flare’s POV

While avoiding the bullets the Other, Thanos, and the Chitauri had created for the sole purpose of subduing Loki and me, I felt a sharp burst of panic come from Stark. He was a few metres away, thankfully still in his circle, and able to see the entire fight. I understood his hurried warning, and turned to face whatever coward had waited to attack from behind.

I don’t know why it happened, but my speed failed me. Usually, I would have spun almost too fast for a human eye to follow, but instead I felt the impact from one of the high-speed projectiles on my upper back. The force against my already unstable position threw me to the ground, thankfully avoiding the other bullets that whistled over my head.

These bullets were not like others. Like I said, specifically designed to subdue, not kill. It was on me, stuck to my skin as it was meant to do, by having lots of tiny hooks that released when contact was made. These hooks only pierced one or two layers of skin, and didn’t draw blood, so they wouldn’t melt within seconds of contact with me, unfortunately.

I reached behind me and pulled it off, taking a circle of skin with it, before it could get any further in its efforts to incapacitate me. The tearing stung, of course, but it was much better than the alternative.

A side note to explain this; the Chitauri were not completely organic beings. They were cyborgs, half (or at least part) metal, and most of their tools and inventions are the same. These little menaces, once attached, would quickly awaken this creature within the bullet that the Chitauri had modified, which fed on electricity. Know how the body is controlled by miniscule currents of electricity through the nerves? Yeah. Basically, once attached, they would reach to touch the skin with more hooks of their own, then feed on the energy sent by the body’s movements. They had quite a fair reach into the flesh of its victim, and could disregard most layers of fur, clothing, or even armour. When they grew enough, they went to the next stage of their life. (Think maggots). Not pleasant.

This was what they would do naturally. Usually there were only one or two on the same animal, giving it a numbed area and some difficulty moving for a while, often on its back as they dropped from above onto their prey like a leech. Once these ones reached the next stage, it quickly would die, as they fed, bred, and spread further. The ones in the bullets were designed to absorb signals sent exclusively from the brain to the body (except the heartbeat so I wouldn’t die. They left the respiratory system too in case used on anyone else), not the body to the brain. I would still be able to sense things, just not move. The Chitauri, and Thanos, are sadistic. They did this so whoever they used it on, usually Loki and me, would be able to feel pain, and not do anything to retaliate. As the creatures were alive, it would take many hours before my body would recognise the living being as an intrusion, and not an intended shapeshift of my own, so no chains were necessary for that time, and it would be an easy matter to fix them long before they were needed. Provided that the bullets stayed in, they even suppressed any use of magic, and were engraved so magic wouldn’t work on them (otherwise we’d just deflect them all to hit who shot them, or raise a shield).

So yeah, much better to rip it off like a more-painful-than-normal band aid. Only works if you get it within a few seconds, however, so if I got hit by too many, I was screwed.

Last time, the army had quickly run out of the bullets, (expecting not to need too many. Stupid things), but this time they were obviously more prepared. I did what I really didn’t want to do, and used magic to tear up the ground around me, jutting it upwards in an earthen shield. Sorry Central Park, I’ll fix the damage as soon as I can. I heard soft thuds of more bullets hitting my solid barrier as the Chitauri had changed their aim to try and hit me on the ground. Proven that I was encased securely, I vanished my knives into my dimensional pocket, and summoned my usual weapons in their place.

In my left hand was another silver dagger, though longer than the previous ones, 20cm of glinting blade, then a blue-grey metal guard which curled up over itself at the ends. The grip was slightly elliptical rather than a straight circular cylinder, and covered in comfortable leather worn slightly to be easy to hold, but spelled so it didn’t wear any further than that.

In my right hand was my chosen weapon, crafted by myself with help of a friend years ago. A hand-and-a-half sword, with a double-edged blade just over one metre, the deepest black you could imagine. The guard was gold and also curled at the ends toward the tip of the blade. The type of sword was made for both one- and two-handed attacks, so had a longer hilt than others, the grip made of black hardwood. In the pommel was a small onyx gemstone, cut expertly into an egg-shape. It was held by four gold metal claws from the end of the sword.

Now ready, I rolled my neck around in my crouched position, then let the earth walls around me explode outwards. I sprang up, pointing the tips of my weapons to the ground, and my wings flared out, stabbing two more Chitauri in the neck with the large claw at the join of the fingers. They had been edging toward my temporary shelter, prepared to shoot it away.

I continued the motion of my wings to throw the two Chitauri in opposite directions. They bowled into others in the army as I retracted the claws. I leapt toward the General in the ensuing mayhem as there was a brief lull in the bullets. Once I reached it, the Chitauri who had recovered were forced to lower their half-raised guns. Hitting the General would have been devastating for them.

We traded powerful blows, neither of us landing a hit. Its sword clanged on mine, and being at least two feet taller, it used its full weight on my extremely light body. Sometimes being designed for flight was really annoying, and still not being at my normal body performance did not help. I had to often brace the dagger behind the blade of the sword as support to block the blows.

A few times, it exposed its side for an easy attack, but I recognised these as traps, and instead aimed somewhere else. I wasn’t trying to kill it anyway, though it didn’t seem to know that.

After getting a feel for its fighting patterns, I began to use the General’s weight against it. When it gave a wide swing, I deflected it and stepped to the side, making it follow through too far, and giving me a brief break. It swung back around quickly with a scowl on its face, and the music of metal on metal rang out once more.

A Chitauri soldier tried to join the fight. I would have let it and used it against the General, but I didn’t need any more distractions, and my body was already tiring.

Actually, when I thought more about it, my body was getting far too tired far too quickly. Of course, with a slashed throat I couldn’t breathe, but that shouldn’t affect my physical performance, I just draw on the energy of Yggdrasil. You can’t think about that now, focus!

I threw my knife at the approaching soldier left-handed. It lodged in its neck and killed it, but I didn’t wait to see it hit the floor before I put both hands on my sword and angled it just in time to block another blow from the leader.

My arms trembled with the strain, showing how weak I was inexplicably becoming. I would have to finish this fight soon. I pushed to the side with my blade and shoved my elbow up into the leader’s chin, making it choke. Quickly, I drove the thin point of my sword between the leader’s head and its helmet, and started to pry it off.

I got it loose and had half of it off before I felt an excruciating pain high in my left leg, and I fell to the ground. I caught myself on my elbows, keeping hold of my sword (a true warrior never voluntarily drops their weapon), and made to roll away, but the leader placed its heavy metal boot on the skin between my wings, and pushed me down. My arms gave out under the immense weight and the unexpected pain.

I silently cried out. Around my wings was the most sensitive part of my body, as I had large amounts of nerves there for use in flight, and the Chitauri all knew it.

Despite the agony in my leg and back, I prepared to fling my wings up to push it off, but before I could, the leader and at least two other Chitauri shot their guns with silver bullets many times, and I felt dozens of impacts on my back, and each of my limbs. I struggled to tear them off, but within seconds I couldn’t move anything below my neck. My half-raised wings fell to the ground.

Now helpless, the leader removed its foot and rolled me onto my back, away from my sword which slipped from limp fingers. My wings and arms were awkwardly splayed out or folded uncomfortably, and the silver bullets they had fired dug in harshly.

When the leader reached a golden-gloved hand toward me, I thrashed, trying to get away, but all that moved was my head. It laughed softly in mirth at my predicament, then drew my arm out from underneath me so I didn’t pop it out of its socket, at least not before it intended to do so itself.

I couldn’t call out to Loki, mentally or physically. Unless he saw what was happening, or Stark called to him (which I doubted he would. I hoped he had the sense not to speak or move), I was stuck.

My leg was still throbbing, and there was the smell of burning flesh. When I raised my head off the ground to look down my body, I saw why. I had been shot by one of the laser guns on the outer side of my left thigh, and my black pants had melted away. The burst of pure energy had completely burned through where it hit, leaving a deep groove of missing flesh. The muscle tissue that remained was red and hadn’t lessened in pain at all, as that part of me had been cooked alive.

In my prone position, I had done as much of an examination of my injury as possible, so now tried to find where the shot had come from. A quick glance around the small circle the army had formed while I fought the General revealed a Chitauri soldier with a satisfied glint in its beady eyes and a straight posture. It gestured to its laser gun when I made eye contact. Damn.

My head fell back breaking the contact when the leader nudged my foot, and I screwed my eyes shut against the shooting pain. I would have groaned if I could.

“Ooh, that looks unpleasant,” it said, with no sympathy whatsoever. “Would you like me to help you?”

I knew what it meant by ‘help.’ I quickly shook my head no. Too late, I realised my mistake. I opened my eyes and stared at it, wishing it not to do what it planned.

It paid no attention, and drew its own laser gun and fired three more times, using longer beams rather than the burst shots. My mouth opened in a scream, but I still couldn’t make a sound. Involuntarily, I tried to move away again, curl up, anything to avoid the laser, but failed miserably.

After the second shot, I couldn’t feel my foot, and looked to see just how much damage had been done. There was barely any flesh connecting my thigh to my knee, and blackened bone was easily visible. The burning smell became suffocating. The third blast caused another silent scream.

The leader stared down at me with glee as it found a way to torment me further. “Were those screams I saw you try to make? You know you’re not allowed to make a noise unless I give you permission, and if you could draw breath, you would have broken that rule, twice over.” It reached down to pluck my sword from beside my hand. I glared at it. Its movement had taken its face closer to mine, and I gathered some saliva before spitting into its eye.

It roared as it straightened. I prepared for more pain to be dealt, as I knew my action was not going to go unpunished. Sure enough, it pressed the tip of my sword to my right wrist, then dragged it upwards in a line, cutting the material of my armour easily, as the spells on the blade could overcome the ones on the cat-suit, even easier than the specialized Chitauri lasers could.

The severed sleeve separated as gravity pulled it on either side of my arm, revealing now-unprotected skin. A thin red-gold line was also left in the point’s wake.

“Since you deprived us of our snack before, I will take a small one for myself while waiting for my kin to subdue your prince.” A horizontal cut was made on the underside of my upper arm. It was deep enough to reach a little into the muscle beneath skin, but when the General didn’t make it any deeper, I knew what it was going to do.

Removing the blade, it crouched beside me, and dug its metal-covered fingers and two thumbs into the wound. I hoped it took too long so his glove would melt and burn his hand, but no such luck. Before the few seconds needed had passed, it gripped its hand together and pulled.

Skin and muscle tore downward, then up and away from where it should be. My neck clenched painfully tight at this new agony, though it wasn’t quite as bad as feeling myself being cooked. Once the chunk had detached completely, the General eyed it in its hand. I wanted to look away so I didn’t have to see what it would do next, but knew it would then only make me watch, or worse.

Its helmet made a large bite impossible, so instead it tore strips off, sending more of my blood dripping onto me. When it finished, it grinned, showing its blood-stained teeth. How I loathed these creatures. My glare would have made any lesser being run in fear, though I knew no attempt at intimidation was going to work with me on the ground and unable to move as I was.

From behind the General’s position, I could see Stark standing horrified in his circle. He had seen and heard everything, and was fighting a battle in keeping his lunch down. Luckily, he succeeded, or he would have been heard. He was worryingly pale, however.

The General drew my attention back to it when it spoke. “Delicious as always.” Just as disgusting as always, I thought. “Well, you have no magic, no movement, no left leg, and the princeling is otherwise occupied. I think I can safely say that the High Chitauri have lived up to our expectations.” It looked to where a large crowd of Chitauri were still fighting Loki. He may have held out this long, and would have the stamina to fight for much longer, but against so many of near Asgardian strength and ability, he would fall soon. Both the leader and I knew that. It chuckled again. “One Skywalker down, one to go.”

I knew something else though. Loki was not quite so outnumbered at this moment as all but I thought he was. False sense of security, as if beasts like you could break us quite so easily. Has it ever been like this before? With Loki still free, you should know better than to think you’ve already won.

I couldn’t help but mock with exaggerated silent laughter as I continued to glare into its eyes. I probably looked deranged, especially with droplets of blood over me, the gruesome red patch on my arm, and blackened leg. Its face creased in suspicion.

“What are you doing? What can you possibly find funny?” My laughter stopped, but became a smirk. Wouldn’t you like to know?

It was so quaint how they still underestimated Loki and me. True, at this moment, I was at its mercy, (and that was not a good place to be, as shown very clearly by what it had just done), and if Loki didn’t come soon, both of us were doomed to return to Thanos within the next few days (then probably wouldn’t be able to escape again, not for many years, and by then, it would be too late), but…while this exact scenario had not been part of the plan, it wouldn’t yet take much for us to regain full control of the situation.

Just as I thought this, the General seemed to come to the decision to complete an action that would actually be detrimental to our plans. It seemed satisfied with the pain it had caused me already, as all it did with my sword was shove it deep into the grass (I will skin you for that), out of my reach even if I could move. It then leaned over me again, and took its right glove off, then its hand reached for my neck. It was going to make the collar appear, and restrict my magic completely.

Not yet, not yet. You are meant to be stupider than this. I ran through ways of stalling, and found a possibility.

I began moving my lips in silent pleas. “No, no. Nonononono. Loki. Nadr. Help me, Loki. Loki.” Being unable to draw breath, I choked in place of coherent noise, and more blood ran down the side of my neck. I knew the General enjoyed my faked terror, as I saw malice and satisfaction flash in its eyes, and this stream of red-gold caught its attention for a second, but it wasn’t enough. It didn’t halt its movement to gloat anymore.

I twisted my head to make it harder, but it just grabbed the base of my short plait and tugged sharply at my hair so my head was forced back. The indigo collar bit into my neck when it materialised, and I prepared for the devastating feeling of my magic being cut off.

With perfect timing, I felt Loki’s presence faintly through the magic blocks. The bullets, unknowingly to their creators, had a side-effect of restricting the link between Loki and me. Almost nothing could fully break our constant contact, but when impeded, I couldn’t mind-speak with him, and virtually nothing could be felt at even a short distance, like across the battlefield. Now, he was close enough for me to sense him, and the General was about to realise he had someone unwelcome at his back.

“What? Why are the links going…?” It muttered in confusion, instead of grating words. Really, even altered, all Chitauri were so slow sometimes. The links between our collars connected directly to each other, and since they were pure magic, they went through anything in their way.

When more than four metres apart, each collar would have two metres of chain extending toward its twin before the links ended. So if, like now, they were close enough to be joined together, and if, like now, mine pointed not to where the Chitauri were fighting an illusion that evaded all attacks, but straight through the General’s chest…it didn’t have time for any more thoughts as its helm was yanked off harshly by Loki. Now visible, he was standing behind the General, breathing heavily and splattered with more black blood (aside: he had remembered to rid his mouth and face of the remnants of the Leviathans, unlike myself, who could still taste the disgusting flavour).

The helms that each of the Chitauri wore prevented me from entering their minds, or mind really. The High Chitauri still had a hive mind that would kill them all if the source they were linked to was destroyed, but since their disaster with Stark’s nuke, they had decided to make it harder to achieve this. Now, the source was another Chitauri, i.e. the General. This is why the General stayed in the middle of the army, and was even stronger than the others, with better armour. Our whole plan was for me to get close to it (without it having time to flee or cover itself with other Chitauri), fight with intent to remove the helm, and enter its mind.

Loki, though I know he would have wanted to help me earlier, had waited for this moment, as even though the bullets prevented me using my magic, I did not need magic to enter a mind if I had skin to skin contact. Similar physical contact was required to adjust my collar’s restrictions, unlike Loki’s where someone with the ability to change it just needed their hand to be very close (mine was the ‘follower’ collar, so changing mine instead of Loki’s was overruling what the ‘leader’ had set. Luckily, it meant that if mine was restricted, at least Loki would still have access to magic, whereas if he was caught, neither of us would). To do this though meant that the General was also touching my neck with its now gloveless hand.

All the Chitauri froze, and Loki removed his final illusion. There had been 300 Chitauri fighting him, but as green light washed over them, at least 50 were shown to be on the ground, convulsing as electricity ran through them.

Even though Loki didn’t like the reminder of Thor, his element was a favourite of mine, and could be very useful. A simple spell, one short word, and lightning sparked between Loki’s fingers, which he would then bring into contact with the neck of one of the soldiers, taking them down, then feeding off their energy slowly to keep them out of battle without draining the caster further. I didn’t care that these weren’t the exact Chitauri that had hurt us, it was still satisfying.

Many of the other soldiers were sporting at least one bleeding wound, though none serious enough to kill them. Most of the wounds would heal before they fully left the solar system, thanks to their enhanced forms.

Back to my task, I sifted through the leader’s, and therefore all of their, minds. I erased the memories of what had actually happened here on Earth, and replaced them with others. They never encountered us, our magic wasn’t detected anywhere on the planet, the losses they sustained were from the Avengers, and I made them think the Hulk was here, as well as the rest of the team. I then planted the suggestion to leave Earth, as they now thought there was nothing here for them.

I left them the memory of the new Avengers, Vision, Parker, and T’Challa, but removed any recollection of the mind gem. As far as Thanos knew, it had also been taken to Asgard, then placed somewhere unknown far from the Tesseract. Vision was just another metal man.

When the army reported back to Thanos, he would suspect nothing. We could have killed the General, destroying one of the armies, but then he would have known we were here immediately. Instead, they just had false memories, and couldn’t even recollect the truth.

I told them to retrieve all the gear they had brought, and to release the Avengers from their restraints and take the chains. Some Chitauri immediately went to do so, including toward the net that had been fired at the illusion of Loki (I would have made them leave it, but they only had two, so to leave one behind would also tell Thanos something was wrong).

While I was in the leader’s mind, my body had raised to float upright in the air, surrounded by a faint red glow, a natural reaction that didn’t require magic so I could keep in contact, even as it stood up and straightened. Now that I retreated, this glow faded, and I prepared for pain through my leg as it hit the ground.

Loki moved, a black and green blur, and caught me before it could. He held me against his left side with one arm wrapped securely around my waist, and my feet a couple of inches from the ground, because to him I weighed virtually nothing, even as a dead weight. He kept his knife in his other hand in case the instructions hadn’t worked and the General still attacked, in which case, we would have no choice but to kill it. The collars and chain between us faded as there was no one touching them anymore.

The General blinked, as did every other Chitauri not lying on the ground. It was in front of us, but looked through us as if we were invisible.

“They are not here,” the leader stated in a vacant voice, before recollecting itself and assuming its previous confident stance. It turned to the Chitauri. “We will leave and report to our Master, there is no reason to remain. Return to the ships.”

A few unmanned crafts the size of a truck released from the Chitauri ship still above when the leader raised a hand to its head again, and settled on the ground.

The Chitauri put away their weapons, and some kneeled next to the soldiers still twitching. They carried their fallen kin to these crafts, following the leader’s orders. All of them had blank expressions as the false memories fell into place and erased the true ones.

When the last craft took off, leaving only a couple dozen dead Chitauri and five Leviathans in Central Park, I leaned my head against Loki’s shoulder. He slid his remaining knife into a sheath in his boot, then used the free hand to support me better. He slowly folded his legs until he was sitting on the grass, and gently let my leg reach the ground so it would hurt as little as possible. He arranged my limp form into a comfortable position for both of us, my right side leaning against his chest and wings opened a little so he could start removing the bullets still in my back, using nimble fingers to undo the hooks, putting the first one next to him in what would soon become an extensive pile.

It was a painful process, as while Loki was extremely careful removing the hooks, they were still in the most sensitive area of my body. I tried to ignore it as much as possible.

Now that the battle was over, and the adrenaline flowing through me slowed, my mind returned to my near-capture. While Loki worked, I turned my head into his shoulder, and stared blankly at the ground.

Chapter Text

Vision’s POV

I wasn’t worried about being caught by the net until I started to phase through it, and instead was hit with blinding pain. The outcome was the same at a second attempt, and even a beam from the mind gem was only absorbed by the net, and used against me, burning my skin even through my armour. The net fitted around my form tightly, but loose enough for movement. When I tried to change position from the kneel the Chitauri had forced me into though, it resulted in the same pain, as well as the net constricting itself almost to the point of suffocation. This was the first time I had ever felt such physical suffering myself, but I struggled to ignore it, as Tony was about to be killed.

I had to get out to protect the others, so on only three occasions did I stop trying to free myself. The first was when Flare and Loki appeared, as dragons, to kill the Leviathans, as it was wholly unexpected in multiple ways. The leader killing ‘Tony’ was the second, as I thought I had failed in protecting my team, who had given me a home and a family I cared about. For this, I couldn’t continue until it was revealed that Tony had not been in the leader’s grasp at all. The last occasion was Flare’s teleportation of us elsewhere, as the brief flash of white light and then sudden change of position was extremely disconcerting.

I lost track of the time I spent trying to break out, but the next time I looked up, Flare was on the ground with the leader looming over her. It reached down for her, and the collar we had seen before appeared around her neck. The chain attached to it extended towards us, straight through the chest of the leader, as if it had no substance. The leader tilted its head in what seemed like confusion before Loki suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind it, the collar around his neck also in view, the chain meeting Flare’s and connecting them together.

He grabbed the leader’s helmet and tore it off. Immediately, every Chitauri froze. Loki made a brief gesture with a hand, and a green light washed over them, leaving many untouched, but some were now on the ground that hadn’t been previously.

From behind Loki and the leader, I could see half of Flare’s body, which was floating with a red tinge around her. As soon as this light disappeared, she started to fall. Loki moved around the Chitauri, the chains of the collars growing shorter as he came closer to Flare, and caught her. For a few seconds, all was still, until the leader turned away from them. It raised a hand to its head again and announced loudly, “We will leave and report to our Master, there is no reason to remain. Return to the ships.”

Every Chitauri then started moving toward some crafts that came from the ship above, gathering those still alive but fallen, and any equipment they left.

When some approached me, I admit that I flinched back, but all they did was touch the net, and mutter a few incomprehensible words in a guttural language. The net around me opened from the back, then lifted off until it was in a small pile at the soldiers’ feet. They picked it up and walked away, looking as if they had no idea of what they were doing.

Others went to Thor and did the same with his chains, while for the rest of the Avengers, inserting one of their sharp claw-like fingernails into the locks released the bindings.

Peter, arm still dripping red, immediately started walking over to where Loki was now sitting on the ground. Flare was leaning on him, unmoving.

“Where is Tony? What did you do with him?” Peter called, his voice furious but pained.

Neither of them glanced at him.

“Peter! Don’t worry, they did nothing. I’m here,” Tony’s loud but wavering voice was heard, but I couldn’t see where he was, until from about 15 feet to the left of Loki, he appeared out of thin air.

He had blood on his shirt, but it was from nothing except a small cut on his neck, the one from before the dragons had arrived. He was clutching his stomach and was pale, as if he had nearly thrown up.

Peter veered toward him and pulled him in for a tight hug. I looked away from them to observe what Loki and Flare were doing.

Loki had splatters of black Chitauri blood all over him, and some had transferred to Flare, but seemed uninjured himself. I couldn’t see Flare much from this angle, as she was blocked by Loki.

The other Avengers warily approached with me. I noticed Loki was speaking to Flare, though I think that only Thor and I could hear him from this distance.

“…skin it. I’ll skin it for what it did to you.” His voice held suppressed anger.

Flare didn’t react. She continued looking blankly away from us.

Loki’s tone softened at this lack of response. “Foa?”

Flare still didn’t move, but did start to make chittering noises with her tongue. As she wasn’t breathing, and I don’t think she had been since she ‘died’ as Tony, I presumed it was one of the few sounds she could make without air.

I recognised the pattern of clicks to be soft but very fast Morse Code.

I-M  F-I-N-E.

“Well, clearly not. You hardly ever cease speaking for more than a minute.”

I  C-A-N-T  B-R-E-A-T-H-E  A-N-D  M-O-R-S-E  I-S  S-L-O-W.

“Never stopped you before.”

B-E-F-O-R-E,  I  W-A-S-N-T  P-A-R-A-L-Y-S-E-D  F-R-O-M  T-H-E  N-E-C-K  D-O-W-N  A-S  W-E-L-L  A-S  M-U-T-E. She went even quieter for the next few words. T-H-E-Y  C-A-U-G-H-T  M-E  A-N-D  N-O-W  I  C-A-N-T  M-O-V-E. Her head lifted briefly only to go back with a faint ‘thunk’ against Loki’s chest. I  F-A-I-L-E-D.  I  F-O-U-G-H-T  O-N-E  C-H-I-T-A-U-R-I  A-N-D  I  F-A-I-L-E-D.

“That’s quite enough of that. Those that weren’t fighting me were all shooting at you, and the ‘one Chitauri’ you faced was a General of a Higher Army. You did not fail. The only reason I could remove the helm was that you had practically already done so for me.”

I  S-T-I-L-L  F-A-I-L-E-D.  M-Y  M-A-G-I-C  W-O-U-L-D  H-A-V-E  B-E-E-N  C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E-L-Y  B-O-U-N-D  I-F  Y-O-U  W-E-R-E  E-V-E-N  A  S-E-C-O-N-D  L-A-T-E-R.

“But I wasn’t.” While Flare was now the one showing anger, Loki had calmed, though he seemed a bit amused.

B-U-T  Y-O-U  C-O-U-L-D  H-A-V-E  B-E-E-N.

“But I wasn’t, Flare, and you know that I would not have let them take you without a fight. I swear to you that we are never going back,” Loki said softly. Throughout their conversation, he kept his focus on whatever he was removing from her back. I think he knew we were coming closer, and that at least Thor could hear. I don’t imagine he thought I could, though.

Flare gently nudged him with her head, her face again hidden. D-O-N-T  S-W-E-A-R.  N-O-R-N-S  W-I-L-L  B-E  S-U-R-E  T-O  M-A-K-E  Y-O-U  B-R-E-A-K  I-T.

Loki stopped what he was doing with a smile, an actual smile. It was small, but I saw it. From the confused expression on Thor’s face, he did too, though wouldn’t have understood Flare’s sentence that had brought it. Loki pulled Flare closer, resting his head on hers briefly, then whispered something too quiet for even me to hear.

Peter and Tony had since started walking towards us, Peter in front showing a lot more energy than he had been a few minutes before. Tony hesitated for a second, before surprising all of us by moving around slightly so he could be easily seen by Flare and Loki.

“Hey bat-girl? Are you…are you okay? Actually that’s a stupid question. Of course you’re not.” He did not say any biting remark like I expected. He was hesitant, and staring at Flare with poorly-disguised horror. He had a different angle than the rest of us, and when Peter turned to the two on the ground only to hurriedly look away again and retch, I started to edge around toward them, rather than the straight route I had been taking.

Loki froze, and turned his head to watch as I was followed by Natasha, T’Challa, and Thor. His gaze lingered on his brother, and then me, with a blank expression, but his hand moved toward his boot where a knife was sheathed.

I heard T’Challa release a breath when he saw Flare’s injury, as did I. She was in the middle of replying to Tony’s question, with slower Morse code than before. I  W-I-L-L  B-E.

But her statement didn’t seem possible. Not only should she have died from having her throat slit, but her leg would be completely unsalvageable. I didn’t know how she was still coherent with how much pain she must have been in, it being mangled at the knee to a point almost beyond recognition.

Back to Loki, she sped up her clicks again. H-O-W  M-A-N-Y  M-O-R-E?

After determining that none of us were going to attack, Loki had moved his hands to where they’d been before. He removed a silver object from her back, putting it on the ground in a pile of a few others. “One, but I need you to lift up so I can reach it.” He was even quieter.

Flare did as he asked, turning her head away so she faced forward. I winced at the faint squelch the wound on her neck made as it moved and bled a little more.

Another gesture from Loki made the red-gold blood that now stained his chest disappear. He then used that same hand to find something hidden between the ridges of Flare’s wings. A few seconds later and he put another silver object down.

Flare’s wings shuffled, then moved into what seemed like a more comfortable position, as they weren’t hanging limp on the ground anymore. Without a word, Flare tilted her head down a bit so the severed layers of the nightmarish wound on her neck just touched.

Peter had to look away, and Tony went even slightly paler, but Loki, unperturbed, raised his hand to the wound. Green energy swirled, and Flare winced when his fingers touched her.

At first nothing else happened, then Flare closed her eyes and relaxed into the touch. She sucked in a large breath just before the visible cut healed into a red line, then a white scar, and finally disappeared altogether.

Loki took his hand away and wiped it on the ground, getting rid of Flare’s blood, then leaned his weight back on it, seeming content to ignore us for now, even though we (except for Thor) were staring at the impossible healing. Flare took a few more deep breaths with a smile on her face.

She opened her eyes and went back to resting her head on Loki’s shoulder. “Ah, sweet, sweet air, how I missed you.”

“You say that every time.”

“And every time it is just as true,” she breathed in again, sighing happily as she let the air out. “Particularly this time as we are outside, and even the air on Earth is better than an underground cell.” She rolled her now unblemished neck around slowly. “Could you do my arms and hands next? Then I can begin to help you, and rid myself of the bloody things faster.”

Loki’s smile now became more like the mischievous one the other Avengers remembered clearly. “No.”

Flare looked at him for a second, then exclaimed, “what did I do?! I haven’t done anything!”

Loki’s smile grew wider. “Haven’t you?” He moved Flare carefully so he could move from his position on the ground. Gently, he let her head reach the grass, and stood up. Immediately, he had multiple weapons from all but Tony and Peter, who had lost theirs, trained on him. He waved a hand without looking at us, and a faint green tinge appeared in the air around him and Flare. A force-field, a little more than 5 yards in diameter, with the two in the centre. It had stopped mere inches from Tony’s feet, as he was the closest to them.

Natasha had already fired her gun, her fast reflexes not being slowed when faced with killing an adversary. Rather than doing any damage to her target, however, the bullet crumpled against the field, and the two inside didn’t even look up at the bang.

“I’m sorry for salting your water two days ago?” Flare said from the ground. Her wings fluttered at her sides.

Loki shook his head once, and took one long stride away.

“Putting a hole in all of your teabags yesterday?”

Tony was gaping. Loki didn’t say anything, only walking another step further.

“Playing my music too loud? Forgetting to buy dark chocolate? What did I do, Loki?”

Loki folded his arms in one smooth movement, still looking at Flare, and took one more step. “Exactly, what did you do the last time, when our positions were reversed?”

Flare thought, then looked sheepish. “Come on, that was nearly three years ago. Surely you’re not still mad at me.”

Loki huffed. “Two hours, Flare, you laughed for 10 minutes, then disappeared for two hours, to eat.”

“It was funny. That was the only time you were ever hit enough to be completely unable to move, and speak, without me being the same. Also, I was hungry.”

“Yes, well I am currently famished. You will be able to find me in, oh, Japan perhaps, once you eventually burn the remaining ones out. Should take no more than five or six hours.”

Flare looked at him pleadingly. “Don’t leave me here for that long! Loki!”

“The force field will hold, and I’m sure you can find something to entertain you. Small pleasures please small minds and whatnot,” Loki threw in return.

“Loki, look at me! You may have healed my neck, but my leg is absolute agony. And my arm,” Flare said.

Until now, I hadn’t noticed her arm, but there was a large chunk of it missing just below her shoulder, and the grass underneath it was stained with more of her uniquely coloured blood.

She continued when Loki didn’t look at all sympathetic, only increasing the distance between them. “Last time you had no injury more serious than a shallow cut that was already healing. I, however, am currently a damsel in distress, who needs a hero to save her.” She said this very dramatically. “I would swoon if I could but I’m already on the ground and I can’t move my hand.”

While his face was blank and serious, Loki’s eyes were glinting with amusement. “All the heroic material was used in those around us, I’m afraid,” he made a sweeping gesture to demonstrate who he meant. “Farewell, Flare. I may or may not save you some ramen.” After stating this, he turned away. The wing closest to him shot out from beside Flare as he took leisurely strides away from her, but he was already out of reach for her to block him off. His clothes shimmered and changed into a black business suit as he continued unhindered, until one step before he would have left the field, he disappeared.

Chapter Text

Vision’s POV

As soon as he vanished, Flare began a string of insults and curses. They started in English, some of which were ‘damn you’, ‘fuck you too, Loki’, ‘prick’, and ‘I said I was sorry straight after you little bitch’, then became more specific, (‘If you don’t come back and help me now, I suggest you carefully check anything sweet you eat in the future, cause you won’t know if I’ve put arsenic in it’ was one) and then cycled through French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian (though these were just the equivalent of general expletives).

After that, she started shouting full sentences in other languages that I couldn’t recognise, though Thor obviously could and they must have been very crude because he turned a deeper and deeper shade of scarlet.

Suddenly, she switched back to English and yelled as loud as she could. “Fucking ugly troll who fornicates with horses to get a lay! I KNOW YOU’RE STILL HERE, HORSE FUCKER!”

I had been stifling my laughter, as had the others, but at this, I couldn’t help it. I choked.

Flare startled at the sound, and flexed her neck and upper back so she could see us, though we would be upside down, through the force field. Her arms were dragged with the change of position, but otherwise stayed motionless.

Thor was the easiest for her to see, and at his expression, her mouth opened and closed once before she spoke, at a volume that implied she was mainly talking to herself. “I…forgot there was someone else here who could speak those languages.” She winced a bit, like she was reviewing what she had previously yelled for Thor to hear.

Tony was also amused. “Nice insults, of the ones I understood, though now I’m confused and probably-unhealthily curious; is Reindeer Games actually the mother of a horse?” When Flare’s gaze switched to him in bafflement, he continued. “Thor told us a couple stories, but didn’t know all the answers.”

Flare’s expression cleared of its frown. “Of course not, Loki doesn’t have any children of his blood. I just use it in an attempt to see if he’s near when I can’t sense him. He usually throws something at me if I bring up his rumoured…ah…relations with Svaðilfari.”

Flare flushed, and let her head flop back to a normal position. Her wings fluttered once, showing her discomfort.

Natasha had just reached to connect a link through her comms when Flare spoke again, without moving her head.

“There’s no point in warning whoever it is you’re about to call that Loki is in Japan, or teleported anywhere else. He is here, even though he didn’t take immediate retaliation for everything I just said.”

Natasha lowered her hand, while everyone else glanced around nervously. Thor held Mjolnir tightly, waiting for a surprise attack. Tony was the only one who was calm.

“What is he waiting for?” She asked.

Flare flexed her neck again to look at us, and sighed. “This,” then she raised her voice slightly, and said in a defeated tone, “if you help me, I’ll cook tonight.”

Cue confused looks exchanged between the Avengers, and a soft chuckle from the direction Loki had disappeared.

*******

Flare’s POV

“Now since the name-calling failed you plan to make a bargain?” Loki asked dryly, and he stopped the invisibility spell, appearing still within the force field. “Quite the sudden change of tactic.” As I thought, he never left.

Also as I thought, he hadn’t actually changed his clothes into a suit, as after fighting the Chitauri, he would have been wounded at least a few times, no matter that he didn’t seem to have any (he probably hid them so the Avengers couldn’t see. Men.), and he would not risk getting blood, his or otherwise, on anything that he didn’t have to.

He was standing a few metres away, and although I couldn’t be bothered raising my head to see his face, I knew he would be sporting a wry smile.

“We both know that’s what you wanted, manipulative bastard. You take ‘if you can do something, never do it for free,’ way too seriously,” I snapped back. This bargaining for a favour was not new.

“So I’ve been told.” Loki now came closer, and I was right, the corner of his lip was lifted.

He began the terms. “Seven days, consecutively, every meal, starting today. No take-away, no purposefully making the food terrible, nor something that you know I don’t find appealing.” Well, there went most of my plans.

A scoff, courtesy of me. “Keep dreaming, snake, three days.”

“Four.” I was about to agree when he continued. “Though that will only be worth the bullets.”

I groaned. “You’re milking it, Loki, milking it.”

“And you thought that I would, what, simply overlook the slanders you used against me? Surely you know better than that.”

I groaned. “Five days, all bullets and helping me fully with my leg.”

“If you swear not to poison anything, either, then we are agreed.”

“Do you not trust me?” I said sweetly.

Loki raised an eyebrow. “About as much as I trust myself, at least when making bargains, and I mentioned that I heard your previous words already. That includes the threats. Now, do we have a deal?”

I sighed. He had taken my last idea away (What? I would have only used a small amount. Enough to make an Asgardian sick, but not to kill one). “Gah, fine, deal. I swear to uphold your terms if you do the same for mine.” It wasn’t a proper promise, but between us, it was as good as one.

He gave a satisfied smirk then asked, “Bullets or leg first?”

“Well the bullets do prevent any movement or magic on my part, so unless you particularly want to be punched or thrown into a tree later,” I drawled, “I’d suggest doing the leg.” I knew it was too far gone to heal even with a healing stone, and both of us had used too much magic to make combining power through Loki worthwhile, so we’d have to do something else. I hoped the Avengers wouldn’t get too shocked by what had to be done next, and try to stop Loki by attacking the field. More than a few strong blows would break it, or at least drain Loki of his last dredges.

I didn’t let this worry show in the slightest though as I cheekily added, “Now off with you. Go get me some metal.”

He stepped back and made a deep bow, and when he straightened he was smiling, and said with only a slight amount of seriousness, “Of course, my Lady. And is there anything else you desire? A servant to fan you with a palm leaf, or a fainting couch? Perhaps some hand-fed peeled grapes as well? Why not all three?” As he spoke, he turned away and exited the force field, in the large gap left between Stark and Vision, and made an illusion of having a smaller field for himself, as a real one would use more energy.

At the sight of this illusion, the Avengers lowered the weapons they had again aimed at Loki, thinking that there was nothing they could do.

He went over to one of the dead Chitauri on the ground, picked it up with one hand, and tore off the metal armour on its chest with the other. It took a lot of effort, as they were very resistant, but he managed by systematically pulling overlapping bits apart. One wouldn’t be able to do that while the Chitauri was still alive and fighting.

When he started to come back, I continued our banter, with an imitation of one of the noble members of Asgard. “Oh, no, my Lord. All I wish for currently is my sword and dagger to be returned to me, as I am unable to reach them. No, only a royal would wish for such petty items as those.” I then smiled sweetly at him.

“Your insult falls short, I’m afraid, as I am no longer royal,” he returned, with his arms spread a little distance from his sides, carrying the metal pieces in his left hand.

Faintly, I heard an intake of breath from Thor. Take that, Thunderer, you disowned him and he no longer cares, he jokes about it.

“Oh, I meant born royal in one realm and raised royal in another. My mistake.” 

“Is that the best you could do? A little blunt, don’t you think?”

“Of course I can do better. You know I can, after all, I’ve lived with you for 14 years.” Struck by a perfect opportunity, I kept going. “Only a fool would learn nothing after even one. For more than 10? They must truly be an idiot.” Loki clearly understood who I was talking about, as together, we looked at Thor (to me he was upside down again, but Loki just had to turn his head).

Every Avenger held the same expression. A mixture of disbelief, anger, and humour (though very slight). From Loki’s memories, I recognised the expression that Thor wore as the one where he couldn’t decide whether to laugh or try to hit something, probably Loki.

I started giggling, then fully laughing. Loki just smiled, which was practically his equivalent. 

Broken up by my laughter, I said “you should see your faces! Oh, it’s beautiful! I haven’t laughed like this in weeks.” Abruptly, I stopped. “Owwww. I’ve got a stitch.” I tried moving my arms to cover my stomach where it hurt, but I was still paralysed, so this didn’t work.

“You poor thing. A stitch? How horrible,” Loki said dryly, and slowly lowered himself to the ground on my left side, until he sat on his legs. He poked me just under the stitch, which was completely unfair because I couldn’t slap him off.

“Go away, Loki!” I laughed, then groaned a long ‘ow’ because that made the stitch worse.

“So you don’t want my help. Maybe I should go to Japan.”

I frowned as the pain in my leg made itself known again. “I managed to forget about that actually.” (Distantly, I read Stark’s expression of ‘how?!’) “Let’s get this over with then. Dagger will probably be easier. It’s in the Chitauri that way,” I used my head to point. “And could you give me my sword?” Loki made it levitate to his hand so he didn’t have to get up again, then placed the hilt in mine, laying it on the floor carefully. He also summoned my dagger from where it was sheathed in the neck of a Chitauri soldier. He wiped each side on a clear section of grass to get rid of the black blood, then increased the temperature of the blade until it was red-hot, and suddenly cooled it again, to sterilise it.

He put the edge of the blade against the inside of my leg, just above the knee, as that’s where the burns started.

 “Ready?” Loki asked

“No, not really, but it’ll be over quick rather than the burning I feel now. Do it.”

With one quick pull, the steel blade, sharpened by myself as far as possible without losing any strength, made a clean cut straight through my leg. It took a second before I felt the new pain, but when I did I gave a suppressed scream, and again had the horrible sensation of paralysis when I instinctively tried to raise my right leg to kick Loki away, but never moved.

I groaned as I distantly felt Loki press the metal to where my leg now ended, before sensation ceased altogether.

Chapter Text

Flare’s POV, past

I nudged Loki, waking him from his sleep, then retracted my hand and pushed myself back to sit comfortably again. “The Chitauri are coming,” I whispered. We were sitting against the back wall of our cell, about two metres apart, and I heard him shift to be more upright while I continued staring forward at the bars on the opposite side.

“They would have woken me soon enough. You should have let me sleep,” he snapped back.

“Because two minutes would have made so much difference. You may have suddenly become less ugly for that much more beauty sleep,” I muttered to myself, perfectly aware he could still hear me. I continued before he could reply. “Well, I’m sorry that there was something different this time, and I thought you might like some warning so you weren’t still groggy. Next time I won’t bother,” I huffed, and turned away from him.

He lost the haughty expression that meant he was about to deliver a biting retort, recognising that while my words weren’t said seriously, the subject of them certainly was. He sat up a bit and listened to the sounds of footsteps himself.

“There’s more of them than usual,” he remarked. The most we had ever had was the first few times they came for us; six surrounded Loki and three for me. Since then, the number had decreased until only four Chitauri would come. Now only two held Loki, and one for me, while the last would hold a blade to our back. (The fourth was added after our second attempt at escape, where we came even closer to actually leaving by overpowering the guards).

This time, if Loki had counted the same as me, there were fourteen.

“Oh yes, and one of them is much heavier, with a longer gait, and with armour that slides smoothly, not grating, when it moves. I think we’re finally meeting the head honcho face to face, and not through his minions, or by talking to the back of a floating chair.

“I assume by ‘head honcho,’ you mean leader?”

“Mmn. ‘A leader or manager; the person in charge,’ is what the dictionary says.” I didn’t look at him while I spoke, and instead kept facing the stone wall with a door of thick metal bars opposite us.

We couldn’t talk any more, as figures started to line up outside the bars. Thirteen Chitauri soldiers, and one large purple being who took up most of the space. He (I assumed it was he. It was sometimes hard to tell. He might have had no gender, like the Chitauri, or be both male and female, like the race of Jotnar that Loki had told me about) spoke to us.

“At last, I meet my new children in the flesh.” Whenever he addressed Loki and me, even through others’ bodies, he called us such. His son, daughter, or children. Despite the fact that now I was talking to the real him, and that doing so was almost certain to result in more pain, I replied in the same general way as always, as did Loki.

“I am not your anything, much less your daughter…”

“I’ve had quite enough of fathers. I am no longer anyone’s son…”

“…and I never will be.”

“…and I never will be again.” We looked at each other briefly when we practically finished with the same words.

He was in a good mood this time. His voice was unchanged as he replied to our statements. “Neither of you have been here for long; two or three weeks. Even though I keep my offer open for two years, only two have just managed to refuse for more than one. I hope you both will also resist, as most others either were not strong enough to survive, or failed me soon after they accepted.”

“Accepted? You mean when they were so close to death that it was their only chance for a hope of recovery instead of dying in pain!” I exclaimed. Loki, although he didn’t say so out loud, clearly felt the same, as since I was now facing the purple being, I could see him from the corner of my eye, and his fist and jaw were clenched. Together, we glared daggers at the remorseless creature in front of us.

He stared straight back, with amusement glinting in his eyes. After a slight pause filled with tension, he spoke. “I was planning only to watch today’s session, and judge whether either of you were going to be worth my attention at all, but I believe I no longer need to. I can already see that you will become two of my most prized treasures, at least once you have had the right training to reach your full potentials.”

Been broken further and reshaped into a weapon, your own weapon, I think is what you are aiming to do, actually, I thought.

The being addressed the Chitauri to his right, which I then realised was one we had seen before. It was one of only a few who was able to speak a language understandable to others outside its kin.

“What are my daughters doing now?” He asked it.

A creature that introduced itself only as The Other had told us of the Hive Mind shared between the Chitauri (which is very flawed, by the way), to warn that even if the dumb living machines (my words, not its) were the only ones with us, anything we did would instantly be told to The Other or the Master. This Hive Mind is what I assumed the Chitauri soldier was using, as within a few seconds, it spoke.

“Both are in sparring areas, training separately,” it grated out.

“Send the message that their next fight to show their improvement will be held now.”

“Yes, Master,” the Chitauri replied, then went silent. “It is done.”

“Good. Secure these two, then bring them to the sparring area as well. Do not harm them unless it is needed.” After his instructions were given, the purple being walked back the way he’d come. The translator followed like a loyal dog at his heels.

Six of the remaining twelve Chitauri drew weapons and chains before entering our cell. First, they forced our arms behind us and put magic-suppressing shackles around our wrists, then two rested a hand on the chains that similarly prevented use of magic, which trailed from each of our ankles and deep into the wall. They spoke some intelligible words that made the cuff open, then Loki and I were manhandled out of the cell to walk in the middle of the circle.

My body protested against such rough treatment after having been sleeping on the cold, hard stone floor, though it stopped feeling so stiff once we had walked down a few long and twisting halls.

The sparring area turned out to be quite far away from the cells, and I had no hope of navigating to an exit either as I had never seen this part of Kirrixa, so I didn’t entertain any notion of possible escape this time. That didn’t stop me from imagining what pleasure it would give to punch a couple of the guards around me in the face.

The room was huge, large enough for an army to train all at once. A firing range took up most of the space, while the rest was a patchwork of clear floors with string boundaries; sparring arenas.

On opposite sides of one of these, two women, one green and one blue-and-purple, were eying each other. As we were led closer, I judged they were close, as they were having a silent conversation with their expressions, though they stopped when they saw us.

A small raised platform was beside the arena, and we were led onto this. Two Chitauri put heavy hands on both of our shoulders and started to push. Both Loki and I fought them until a third put a knife against our ribcage, where it could easily push the blade into our hearts. I raised my head and stared it down, even as I let them force me to my knees. Loki did the same. The two women watched intently.

Once both of us were on the ground, two Chitauri stayed beside us, threatening with the knives, while the others backed away a few paces.

The purple being entered and strode to the platform. The two women bowed, and gave a greeting of “Thanos,” together.

Finally, a name to the face of the leader.

Thanos made no move to return the greeting, and only spoke at them harshly. “My daughters, the two you see here will likely become your new siblings, but they haven’t yet been prepared to start the process to become accepted. I have determined that they are, however, strong enough to start early. They will watch this battle between the two of you, then partake in one themselves, with the same stakes. Begin when ready.”

The two women made another brief bow to him, though the tension in their postures showed they weren’t completely ruled by Thanos. The green one delayed looking away from his gaze for longer than proper subservience should, while the blue clenched and unclenched her fists once, and glared at a spot over his shoulder. Neither made any move against him, though.

Each of them picked up a wooden staff from where they had left them on the floor, presumably from their training before. They then moved to the center of the ring, facing each other.

Quietly, almost too quiet to hear, the green one spoke. “Nebula, sister, I’m sorry.”

“Save your fake love, Gamora. I know you don’t mean it. If you did, I wouldn’t be the only one with a body slowly being replaced with metal.”

Pained, the green one replied. “I do love you. You are my sister, and I love you.”

“No, you pity me.” With a cry, Nebula launched herself at Gamora, and the fight began.

The staves smacked against each other frequently, but the first to hit the other was Gamora. Nebula was struck on the hand, but rather than the sound of wood on flesh or a crack of bone, a metallic clang rang out.

Suddenly her comment made more sense, as I realised that the metal she wore was not just armour, but part of her body.

She still felt it, as she hissed and briefly let go of the staff with that hand. She moved away so she couldn’t be hit again, then attacked once she regained her grip. Of the two, Gamora was the better fighter by far. She used her whole body to put strength behind her blows, was faster, and more focused. Nebula was showing increasing anger as she failed to retaliate for every blow that landed against her. This anger was her undoing.

Within a few minutes, Gamora found an opening which she took advantage of. Nebula had been glaring into her eyes and didn’t notice the leg hooking around her own. She was brought to the ground, and Gamora stepped on her staff, crouching so she couldn’t overbalance even if Nebula pulled, then held the tip of her own to her sister’s throat. Gamora again muttered, “I’m sorry.”

She backed off quickly when Chitauri came into the ring and surrounded Nebula.

Nebula stood slowly with her head down and shoulders slumped, though breathing angrily. Some Chitauri grabbed each of her arms and held them spread out from her body, then put pressure on them until the pain of her shoulders being forced back made her fall to her knees like us.

Thanos stepped down from the platform and strode to her. “Look at me, my daughter,” he said. The height difference between them meant that Nebula had to crane her neck at an uncomfortable angle. “Again you have failed, despite all the gifts I’ve given to you. Why must I continue to improve your body?”

Nebula’s face showed fear before she lowered her gaze. She remained silent.

Thanos grunted and turned away. “Fix her arm with the new sections.”

Nebula started shaking, but quickly stopped. She was kept in the kneeling position, but her arm was now held out fully parallel to the ground in the grasp of multiple Chitauri.

They drew sharp blades and tools, opening panels in her metal arm and ripping parts out. Her arm was somehow linked into her nervous system, for she screamed loudly as one would for a fully organic arm.

Her screams sometimes cut off briefly in her body’s attempts to shut out the pain, before being jolted awake by a shock from a device held by one of the Chitauri. She squirmed and pulled away, but her arm was held steady.

Different wires and other metal pieces were taken out and replaced. When only a few more were held by surrounding Chitauri, Nebula slumped in their grasp, succumbing to unconsciousness. Even the shock didn't wake her this time.

Thanos had watched the procedure impassively, but as soon as her screams stopped, he grunted, “pathetic.” He looked to Gamora, and Loki and I followed his gaze.

She had a tear running down her face, but she wiped it quickly when she faced him. Her eyes were filled with pain and guilt, though her expression was otherwise blank.

“You are lucky your sister has strong will, and potential for much more than she is showing, for otherwise, with her performance now and at every other battle, I would have chosen to end her long ago.”

“I thank you for your graciousness in sparing her, father,” Gamora said quietly, but as sincerely as she could manage.

Thanos grunted and took half a step as he turned to face us. He addressed some Chitauri that I had heard come from behind, but not yet seen. “Yes, give it to them.” Three came into view, and I saw that one was carrying my set of armour; a two-piece sleek black suit. It was a lot stronger than it looked, as there were many spells woven into the fabric, and it fit on top of the layer I was already wearing, which protected the flesh underneath from almost any physical wound.

The other two Chitauri carried what I assumed to be Loki’s armour. One had simple black knee-high boots and a dark green undershirt, while the other had a folded vest made predominately of a tough leather, with metal layering on the sides and some for embellishment. More metal lay on top of it, which I recognised to be vambraces and upper arm guards.

I furrowed my brows in confusion, as I had not expected them to give us anything, and we would have to fight as we were. Loki wore only some dark green pants, that had probably seen better (read cleaner) days. Glancing back at his armour, the original colour would have matched the undershirt, so I assumed it had been all they’d allowed him to keep when they found him.

They had taken all my armour, but no one except me could remove the seamless layer I wore underneath. This was something of my own invention, and I was glad I never fought without it. While I do love being me, there are some things that makes being a young female absolutely horrible. Even though I was only 12, that certain threat from men was always looming, so I did something about it. The layer covered everything from mid-thigh to shoulder height except my back, and the sleeve came a fair way down my upper arm. It was thin, so it didn’t add too much weight, but the material was strong so that a blade wouldn’t easily cut it; it would most likely go blunt first.

I missed my proper fighting gear though, so as soon the chain keeping my wrists together was removed, (with a warning from Thanos that if Loki or I tried anything, there was still the torture session we were missing), leaving only the shackles themselves I grabbed the suit from the Chitauri’s grasp, walked away a bit, and slipped it on quickly. I uncovered the hidden zip at the back and drew it up, for my magic had been bound since I was given to Thanos, and I hadn’t yet been able to extend my wings.

Loki similarly decided to dress as fast as possible, though the many layers took longer for him to put on, even with his obviously-well-practiced movements. As soon as he was finished, the Chitauri forced us into the ring.

I didn’t want to fight Loki, though more because I wasn’t pleased to be mere entertainment for Thanos and the Chitauri than the consequence of losing that one of us would have to face.

I looked from the spectators to my opponent. He was similarly studying me. I knew he was a prince in a warmongering realm, and had lived for a millennium, so was much more trained in combat than I could ever have been in my short life, even if I had only actually seen him as a fellow tortured prisoner. I also knew he had calluses on his hands that indicated frequent use of multiple weapons, both long and short range, as well as hand-to-hand combat. In his armour, he looked much broader, and his natural stance showed just how well-trained he was.

We had not been given a staff like the two women, so I assumed we would fight without. I made the first move, coming in close to Loki, and beginning a slow, weak jab aimed for a gap between two sections of leather and metal. He saw my fake attempt, and my eyes searching his, so only grabbed my arm gently. I pretended that he had pulled me off-balance, and took another step closer, so I could whisper to him without the others having a chance of hearing.

“You have to win,” I told him, barely moving my mouth. He lifted an eyebrow in questioning before continuing my ruse, twisting the arm he still held until it just started to be uncomfortable.

I broke his hold by bending the arm and coming closer still so I could shove my other elbow into his shoulder. It looked real, but he had let go and allowed me to connect with his armour instead with split-second timing. I admired how good he was at this believable faking, on par with myself, which I had only seen once before.

We circled for a second, me now crouching slightly as he did, before lunging into a flurry of attacks, each one blocked or deflected. Between blows, I whispered more words. “I may not like you, but I am stuck with you, and I know that we have a better chance of escaping and evading capture together than alone, which means we have to work together and trust each other as well.”

“And this is the only reason why you would put yourself in the blue woman’s position?” He seemed amused, probably didn’t think a puny child like me had a hope of beating him.

“Do you want a metal limb?”

“No, not particularly, but I can’t imagine you would either.”

I hesitated to answer. While the Other had drawn blood from both of us in the torture sessions, and found great interest in the colour of mine, it hadn’t yet left anything in long enough to melt and show that my name and hair were not my only links to fire.

“I can’t tell you why just yet. It would take too long and they are already starting to become suspicious. Just trust me and take the easy win.”

“You talk as if you had a hope of defeating a god in any case.”

“I may be young, but I’m a lot stronger than I look. I could beat an arrogant arse like you any day,” I replied indignantly. “For that comment, these next ones are real.”

I delivered my next punch for his gut with a lot more of my strength, and much more speed. My previous warning was the only reason that he managed to envelop my fist with his hand. He looked at it briefly in surprise, then back to my face, where I raised my brow.

I drew back before he could grip tightly and delivered a spinning kick to his chest. This made him stumble back a step, and also let me see Thanos briefly. He was smirking slightly.

I deflected the next punch Loki aimed at me and whispered “Thanos knows we’re faking.”

“It is likely that in the first battle, every pair does the same. He shows no curiosity as to why you would offer to lose, so I would hazard a guess that he believes us to be arguing over which of us should win.”

I felt a bit of relief at his words. “Well, we have come to a decision, right?”

“I still do not understand why you would willingly agree to do so, but yes.”

“Good, do what you have to so it looks like you truly did win. I can’t make it too easy for you though, it would be suspicious if you escaped unscathed.”

The cocky smile he flashed made me cement that thought. He would definitely have a few bruises by the end of this.

What followed was an actual fight, where a punch could, if landed, break bones. Asgardian strength was no laughing matter, and I was thankful that even with a light body, I had similar capabilities. We had stopped our whispering, concentrating completely on the other.

He was brilliant, not just in the style, but how naturally each fluid movement came to him. We danced around each other, so fast that I knew if we were both up to full capacity, a normal human eye would be hard pressed to see more than a blur.

We were quite evenly matched, as both of us had been starved of food and water for a few weeks, and tortured many times over. The fight could have lasted until one or both of us keeled over from sheer exhaustion, or our own bodies failing, but I knew how it had to end.

I flicked my eyes down to my torso briefly, and Loki feinted a kick to my knee as he delivered a solid hit to my stomach. It would have been rib-shattering if not for the two protective layers covering me, but even so, the force caused me to stumble back as I doubled over, coughing.

He gave me no time to recover, coming behind me as I tried to regain my footing. Before I could spin, he grabbed one arm, then the other, then forced them to bend until my forearms touched my sternum, and he could hold both wrists with only one hand. I managed to kick my right foot behind me and make contact with his lower leg, but with my back against his chest, the blow lacked the power necessary to make it buckle.

To prevent me from trying another attack, Loki moved one of his legs in front of mine, then locked his own together, so all my limbs were trapped.

I struggled, thrashing as much as possible. Twisting my right arm sharply allowed me to extract it from Loki’s hold, and I grabbed his free arm before he could secure it again. I couldn’t do anything else but squeeze, and make it look like I would break his arm. I was careful to limit my strength so I wouldn’t hurt him seriously, but enough that he made a real, pained grunt. This was the last thing I could do though, as he quickly regained control of my arm, and then I was fully unable to move.

Seeing that I had lost, many Chitauri swarmed us, taking hold of Loki, re-shackling him, and dragging him away back to Thanos before making him kneel again, and forcing myself into the same position Nebula had been in previously. I continued struggling, but it was only for appearance now.

“Excellent, excellent. My son, you may have a proper meal for your victory once you have returned to your cell. But you, girl,” Thanos put one massive purple hand under my chin to tilt it up, then spoke to me directly. “your loss has resulted in gaining an improvement. Already, your strength is nearly enough to break Asgardian bones bare handed, but we can do better than nearly.” He addressed the Chitauri. “The two smallest fingers on her right hand.”

I shuddered and tried to pull away. While I had agreed to do this, I knew it would be terribly painful, much worse than anything the Chitauri had done to me so far.

My hand was held still even as the rest of me was frantically fighting the Chitauri. It took six of them to hold me, but my right arm was completely immobile.

I couldn’t see what they were doing because their insect-like bodies blocked my view, but I felt one jab a needle into my arm, which made it go limp, though didn’t take any feeling from it. Suddenly, a sharp pain stabbed through my hand, and blood began running down to splatter on the floor. There wasn’t as much as I expected, so the substance that now flowed in my arm probably slowed the bleeding.

I suppressed a scream, but couldn’t help the pitiful groan that escaped. I stopped fighting, and my legs partially buckled until only the Chitauri held me up.

They were fiddling with something else, and I caught a metallic flash near my arm before something was pressed against it. It stung more as it touched the open wound where my fingers used to be, then produced more excruciating pain when something started worming into the flesh.

I held back my body’s natural reaction to melt the intrusion; I would wait until only Loki and I were in the cell again, for I didn’t want to know what they’d do when they realised they’d been tricked.

I must have blacked out briefly, as I felt an electric shock on my left arm which startled me awake. My body tried to make me go unconscious again in an attempt to protect itself, but I forced myself to stay aware. Whatever they had been doing to my hand was nearly finished, and I could feel strange sensations.

Some Chitauri stepped back as they were unneeded, and I got my first look at my hand.

The pinkie and ring fingers were gone, as expected, and in their places were two metal ones that had fused entirely with the flesh of the palm. I could feel more metal under the skin running a short distance from the wrist to my arm, presumably also replacing ligaments and nerves.

I say nerves, because as I had deduced from Nebula, I could definitely still sense things in these new fingers, first the scrape of a Chitauri who brushed against it, and then Thanos’ own rough hand as he inspected his underlings’ work.

“Perfect. It will stay a little sensitive for a few days, but after that, we can test how much strength this will add to you. I expect it will allow you to be on par with an adult male Asgardian, one in the prime of their life, slightly older than your future brother.” I hadn’t known that Loki wasn’t yet full-grown, but I didn’t have time to think much on the revelation as Thanos continued. “They’ll never expect such power from a girl, especially one as young and seemingly mortal as you.” He traced the raised lines that hid metal, and the unexpected pain caused me to half black-out. I groaned and pretended to succumb completely to the blackness, forcing myself not to react when they shocked me this time.

I heard Thanos straighten. “Take them back and secure them again. No sessions for the next three days as a reward for my son and recovery for my daughter. Remove their armour in a few hours’ time, otherwise there may be risk of damaging the new forming connections. None of you will like the consequences if they fail.” He then turned and stalked away, probably back to his throne. Gamora had been given her sister at some point during our fight, and sat on the floor of the platform with her.

Loki was still held kneeling between four Chitauri, sporting a contemplative look, with the underlying irritation at being called Thanos’ son. His wrist shackles were moved from in front to behind him again before he was allowed to rise. The small group walked over to me, still in fake unconsciousness. Some more Chitauri began to pick me up, but Loki spoke.

“May I carry her?” His question was quiet, and the most respectful I had heard him speak since I met him. The Chitauri, surprisingly, turned to Gamora. She had heard the question, but shrugged and told them to ask ‘her father’.

One used the hive mind for a few seconds, and then clicked to the others. I opened my eyes to an unnoticeable slit to watch them. Two drew knives and another its gun and aimed for Loki, resting the blades in places where his heart was easily reached, then moved behind him. Another released the bands of his shackles, instead putting them on his ankles. The chain was just long enough that he could walk, if uncomfortably, but definitely not run.

Then they pushed him toward me, almost but not quite making him stumble and fall, and let him take me from the grasps of my Chitauri. My weight was so little that it took no effort for him to place one arm around my back and the other under my legs, then lift me up. My throbbing hand was placed on my chest, and Loki arranged me to be more comfortable in his arms. I was now partially curled into him, still pretending to be limp.

I closed my eyes for the journey back. This was the first touch in weeks that hadn’t been made with intent to hurt, and it was a wonderful feeling, even if I knew my situation hadn’t changed.

Loki was limping slightly from the kick I had given his leg, and had various other bruises, but he kept his gait as even as possible, even with the chains.

When we reached the cell, the Chitauri fixed the wall shackles onto Loki’s and my ankles before they released the ones Loki already wore.

He sat in his usual place against the back near the corner once the Chitauri had left, but didn’t yet let go of me. Instead, he arranged me to lie beside him, keeping one arm around my back so I didn’t fall, while the other reached behind his head. He released some complicated clasps and drew the metal plating off his front and shoulders, then similar pieces on his back, leaving him in just the green shirt.

He let me lean against him, and took my right arm gently so he could see the metal fingers. He touched the tips, barely grazing them. “I know you are awake, so I wish to ask you; why did you agree to let them do this to you? You held back in the fight, and I admit you had a chance of winning too.”

I stayed next to him rather than moving to my spot against the wall. I could now lift my arm into the air, though it was very shaky and Loki held my forearm to steady it. I found that the fingers bent as normal, and clenched my fist a few times. “Keep my arm there, but don’t touch the metal.” Curious, he did as I asked.

I stopped holding back the natural magic within my blood, and the metal melted. It didn’t fall, however, staying in the hand shape.

Loki startled slightly. “How? The shackles bind our magic.”

I shrugged. “It’s something I’ve always been able to do. The colour of my blood is a physical manifestation of my magic; the more gold, the more I have. It’s not actually where my magic is though, so bleeding me to drain it won’t work. I wouldn’t be able to stand but I could still use magic. If I am wounded and something stays in contact with my blood for more than a few seconds, it melts. Then, it forms itself to replace what is damaged, so anything is just made of the substance instead of flesh. The metal hand has my blood running through it now, with hollow tubes acting as the vessels, and it will stay partially molten because of the blood until I can slowly replace it, growing back the hand when I direct magic to it, and dropping the material I don’t need. I could replace an arm, a leg, organs, or entire bodily systems if I had to, and while it would be heavier, I could otherwise move, to fight whatever had given me the wound. I have no idea what causes it, but it has saved me a few times. Usually, I’d have to grow a nerve system through the replacement, otherwise I couldn’t move it, but the original technology already had a robotic version, so I only had to connect the ends completely. It took less energy than it normally would because of this, but will take slightly more effort to heal, as it’s another part I have to replace.”

“May I touch it?” More curiosity coloured his tone, and I saw through his eyes the scholar in his heart.

I smiled. “Now that the magic’s settled, yes.” Immediately, his fingers started skimming mine. When he held a joint, I folded it, and he let go when the moving parts glowed red. I giggled. “It won’t hurt you, it’s not hot even though it looks to be.”

Again, he touched the joints as I moved, and breathed another “How?” when there was no burn.

“Because magic,” I replied, and grinned at the ‘seriously?’ expression that he sent. A few more seconds of watching him then brought me to remark, “You’re like an over excited child.”

“I am not a child,” he stated, disgruntled. He dropped my hand, which then fell to rest across his stomach.

I laughed, a little awkward, and began to pull away and sit up. The arm still resting across my back tightened slightly.

“Wait. I…wanted to say…others usually laugh or otherwise mock my suffering, but none has ever willingly endured pain on my behalf. You are the first, and although I know I can be…what did you say before? An ‘arrogant arse’ sometimes…often,” he corrected himself at my expression, “I do also know that I am grateful to you. While this metal hand is not as troubling for you as it would be for me, I thank you, Flare, for choosing to take it yourself.”

I stared at him for a minute. He was completely different to how he had always acted in the last two weeks I’d known him. I decided to tell him so. “Who are you and what have you done with Loki?”

He was confused for a second, then when my straight face broke and I laughed again, he understood. He rolled his eyes. “You think you’re funny. It is true that to most others, I am not often pleasant company, but to a special few on rare occasions, I am capable of sincerity.”

I laughed more. “I’m being serious. You’ve been a jerk to me, the only one here who would be a possible ally, for this whole time, and now you’re thanking me?! Were you drugged when I wasn’t looking? Or have you got an infection that’s messing with your head?” I shifted so we were on a more equal level (though since he was so much taller than me, this didn’t count for a lot), and pretended to scrutinise his face. He batted my hands away when I tried to touch his forehead to ‘check for a temperature’ as part of the acting.

I stopped, leaning back against the wall next to him. “You’re welcome, Loki.” He smiled faintly, more with his eyes than his lips.

I again started to move away, and again was prevented. “I owe you a debt, and I always repay my debts. While here, there isn’t much I can do for you in return, but I can at least offer you a place to rest that is slightly more comfortable than the floor. If you wish, you may stay.”

I hesitated for a second before replying. “I’m going to say yes just because I believe that tomorrow this nice version of you will disappear.” I shifted closer, making the chains attached to my ankles clink and scrape along the floor. I guessed that Loki had seen through my lame excuse for acceptance, as just before I lay my head on his chest, I caught the fact that he looked overly pleased.

“This doesn’t mean I like you, by the way. Not even a little bit. You’re just warmer and more comfortable than the floor, and this erases a debt, as you say.”

“Of course.”

Within seconds, I fell asleep to the soothing sound of his slow, steady heartbeat.

Chapter Text

Loki’s POV

I saw the tensed muscles in Flare’s neck release as she quickly lost consciousness, and mentally winced. Her pain threshold was great, and I knew how much she had to suffer before her body would force her into oblivion.

I worked fast while she was unaware to save her more pain. First, I grabbed the pieces of metal I had placed beside me, and used one to push the useless severed flesh away. I then held all these pieces together so they touched the bleeding stump. I avoided looking at the wound, for although I had seen worse, I hated that I was the one who had hurt Flare this way, even if it was necessary.

The metal began to melt, and I let go of it when Flare’s inherent magic took hold, and the red-hot substance flowed to form a replacement leg until it could heal. Leaving Flare’s magic to do its work, I focused on the remaining silver bullets lodged in her arms and right leg. There were only a few left, as most had been aimed higher and on her back to limit the most movement, and those had already been removed. I took hold of her right arm and placed it on her stomach so I could reach the bullets, while also maintaining my position to keep Thor in my line of vision.

The Avengers had at first been horrified by the sudden amputation conducted in front of them, then watched in disbelief as the metal reshaped itself and cooled into an unblemished silver leg. “What did you just do?!” Stark exclaimed.

I had been otherwise ignoring them from inside the force field, so didn’t bother to look up as I answered. “Nothing but allow Flare to begin healing herself without much use of magic.” The lasers had effectively cooked the flesh around the initial wound, so one of the healing stones in my ‘pocket dimension’ would not work. They can only repair tissue, not replace something still present, nor heal something already dead.

Flare’s eyelids fluttered twice and then she woke before anything else could be said, either by myself or the observers. I looked to her just as I finished taking the second of four bullets from her right arm and asked, “Has it worked? Do you have enough?”

Flare was silent for a second, gauging her reply. “Yes, it’s working. I think I need a little more to form the foot though.” I made to get up, as it would hurt her less if the leg was completed altogether, but was stopped as she continued speaking. “Later, at least give me movement in one arm so I can start removing the bullets myself.”

Even after ridding herself of all of them, Flare wouldn’t be able to walk until she had grown a nervous system through the metal, but I knew she simply desired to sit up without having her arms dragging uselessly like rags behind her. She would also then have access to her magic again, which would be invaluable if the Avengers decided to try and break through the field. Thor was aware that attacking a sorcerer’s barrier would eventually drain them of magic, but this could take anywhere between seconds and days. For me, alone, at this moment, it would be closer to minutes, and would reduce to no more than two or three hits if Mjolnir was involved. My only hope was for Thor to attack one single time with Mjolnir first, which when blocked, would discourage the others. Only problem was getting that first hit, as even an Asgardian would be at the very least severely wounded, and Thor seemed to have been dissuaded from the ‘pummel first ask questions never’ mentality that Asgard has adopted for millennia. How to get it back, even if only briefly…

Well, that would only be necessary if Flare decided to stay and fulfill the rest of our plan. We had more parts to our intentions in coming to Central Park. Sending the Chitauri onto their next target planet to search was only the first step. I removed another of the bullets and spoke. “Once finished, do you wish to return home?” Without our normal link, I wasn’t entirely sure as to whether Flare would still want to proceed or wait until she was fully healed.

“No, no, I’ll be fine.” She switched to a language unknown to the Nine Realms, so she could speak without being overheard. “It’s best for us to continue now, after we just prevented the Chitauri from causing harm to their city, and saved their lives in the process. We won’t get another chance like this.”

I had expected this answer, so only gave a brief nod to show I understood. At that moment, I also dropped the last remaining bullet of the arm I was working on, and Flare immediately clenched her fist and breathed a sigh of relief as it responded.

Flare then used that arm to draw the other onto her stomach as well so she could sit up off the ground. Before she started removing bullets herself, she looked at her almost-formed metal leg angrily. “Four days. I have had this leg fully-functioning for a grand total of four days. Twelve days ago they cut it off, I spent six days healing it, then they fucking broke it and wouldn’t let me heal properly. I just finished fixing it when we came here, and now, I have to do it all over again and stop laughing at me.” She shot me a glare accompanying her last words.

The half-smile that had crept onto my face morphed into a faux-innocent expression. “I didn’t make a sound.”

“And yet, I still know that you are laughing. Stop it, or I’ll break your leg.” She retorted, though half-heatedly, as she was now determinedly removing bullets herself. It was slightly awkward and therefore slower with only one hand, but she would manage.

“I thought we were through with the threats. They won’t help, and I could still leave you here, you know. I didn’t make any binding promises,” I warned.

“Do so if you want. I can do the rest over time. Just remember this moment for the next time youinitiate the bargain,” Flare responded.

I pretended to think over it a bit. “Fine, fine. I’ll help.” We both knew I would have regardless.

Again, as soon as I stood, the Avengers that still had weapons directed them at me. I appealed to Stark, as he would likely be the most reasonable at this point in time. What Flare and I had just done during the battle affected him directly, and I could see he was still shaken from his close encounter with death. I kept eye contact with him, keeping my hands by my sides; not threatening, but not obviously placating either. They’d probably take that the wrong way.

“I have no desire to harm you, or your planet, and you cannot reach either Flare or myself while I keep the force field active. We only wish to heal ourselves, but to do so, I need to leave the field again to give Flare more material to finish the replacement leg. I’d rather not feel a knife in my back while doing so.”

The others surprisingly deferred to Stark anyway, who spoke in reply. “Why not make another force field like last time since we can’t get through?”

It was agitating yet expected that I wouldn’t be taken at face value. Some explanations would have to be made. “The next closest and least contaminated or damaged Chitauri armour requires me passing near three of you,” the Lady, the King, and unfortunately, a certain oaf with a hammer, “and while holding a field is nothing, blocking attacks takes energy that I’d hate to use if it could have been avoided.”

From behind me, Romanoff voiced a question. “And why should we help you?”

I switched to her and answered instantly. “Because we just helped you? Also, technically you wouldn’t be ‘helping’, just allowing me to acquire what Flare needs so she can stand and eventually walk.” I kept my tone neutral, despite the fact that she had the barrel of one gun staring me in the eye, and another aimed at Flare.

Thor refused to be sidelined any longer, and now it was he who spoke. “So you can then escape? I’m sorry, Loki,” I held back a scoff, “but though we are grateful that Flare put herself in danger to save Tony…”

“And somehow managed to survive getting her throat cut,” Stark muttered to himself (‘himself’ counted as ‘even the woman with human senses can hear from the other side of the force field’).

“…I cannot allow you to disappear again. I must take you back to Asgard. It was why I was sent here by Father, and he gave me the means to enforce it if need be.”

*******

Flare’s POV

I turned my upper body slightly so I could keep an eye on the upcoming verbal ping-pong match between the two gods. Loki had already started to reply. “I’m sure he did. Which ones this time? The shackles and muzzle you paraded me with around Asgard, or the set used at my farce of a trial? I refuse to accept either, and even if you did manage to get them on me, you would still have Flare to contend with. She would also not go willingly, and I doubt you brought enough for two.”

“Please don’t be difficult. I’d rather not have to fight and overpower you, or harm an innocent drawn into your schemes, but I will to complete my task. You took the throne illegitimately, and evaded your sentence for the invasion of Earth. Coming without conflict may reduce your judgement in this new trial.”

Loki shrugged, choosing only to respond to parts of Thor’s statements. “You were the one who released me from my cell, and who offered an ill-considered bargain for my aid. Be thankful I found an alternate method from the obvious, for you practically gave me no choice but to kill you, your lady, and your shield-mates if I wanted freedom. Did you really expect me to return to a cage if I had any other choice?”

“You tricked me! Made me think you were dead and then fled without honour, disregarding our bargain…”

“What you call dishonour, I call pragmatism. And as for a bargain, you would allow me to help you save the Nine Realms, and as a ‘reward’ get put back into the very cell I then occupied, and be forgotten. What do you think would await me there nowwhen the Aesir consider a deal such as that as fair? Your father and the rest of Asgard already had wished for my immediate execution by the axe or the rope, and when that was pleaded against by one person, lifetime confinement instead. It would even be solitaryconfinement now, as secondly intended, since Queen Frigga is dead.”

All of these words were meant to hurt Thor, but it was in the last sentence when the one with the most impact landed. I knew Loki still thought of Frigga as his mother, so the only reason he called her by her name was to be used as a barb. Sure enough, the Odinson blanched, but he was not the only one affected. The ground beneath us started to tremble, making the Avengers take a step to keep their balance.

“Brother, you are about to cause an earthquake.” All the Avengers were shocked, as these words said in a gentle and concerned tone were not uttered by Thor, but by me.

The trembling stopped as abruptly as it had begun. Loki looked down to me and his blank mask cracked, only for a second, showing the pain he had caused to himself unintentionally. His expression and voice softened, the former solely for my witness, as he muttered “apologies, sister.”

“She’s…you call her…” Thor spluttered. Loki held up a hand, cutting him off.

“Yes. I consider her my sibling. She is certainly worthier of the appellation than you.” The tension that had been building came to a high, and as neither God seemed close to stopping, it wasn’t going to drop any time soon.

Thor’s spluttering continued. “She claims to have only even known you for eleven years…”

Fourteen, actually. I corrected silently.

“…whereas we have been brothers for over a thousand. How can you replace me with a child?”

Loki was still calm, for now. I knew the explosion would come later. “She may look and act like one…”

Hey!

“…but Flare is not a child, and she has not replaced anyone. Brothers?” Loki scoffed. “You may have called me such, but your actions over the last millennium tell a very different story.”

I had half a mind to stop the two Aesir now, but in the same thought knew I had no good way to do so. I couldn’t move anything other than one arm and my upper body, my magic was completely blocked, and being the subject that started the argument, speaking might just rile Thor up more.

Loki had continued while my thoughts ran through my head. “If you weren’t at any given moment ignoring me as if I didn’t exist, you and your Warriors Three would treat me like a servant, even a slave, to order as you will.”

Thor spoke through gritted teeth. “That is not true.”

At the same time, Stark addressed me in an actual whisper. “Aren’t you gonna stop them?”

I whispered in reply “if you want to get between two gods without your suit then be my guest, cause I’d have about the same chance of survival right now.”

The brothers were too focused on each other to notice our conversation (During that time, Loki had countered with, “Of course you wouldn’t think so, but over the years of our ‘brotherhood’, you would barely look at me, even if we were talking face-to-face, nor acknowledge my presence, unless you wanted something.”).

Stark just looked to the beings in question and muttered, “no thanks.”

I went back to removing bullets and listening to the growing verbal battle.

“I could and often did disappear from the palace for months at a time, and not one of you ever noticed.”

“You exaggerate greatly. I have never ignored you. Every time you were sent to Aflheim or Vanaheim to further your magic, we all felt your absence keenly, myself most of all.”

Loki laughed flatly. “I don’t speak of when I was allowed to leave, but of all the times I grew tired of Asgard, of the other warriors, of your presence, and your demands for me to join on some ‘quest’ or another. Of the times I went alone, without anyone knowing. To the outskirts of Asgard, to Vanaheim, Aflheim, Nidavellir, and Nornheim. To Midgard, and the different galaxies and planets of each of the Nine Realms.

“As for ignoring me, how long did it take until you visited me in my cell? A year. And why did you come? Only because you needed my help. Not wanted, by the way, I was the last person you would have come to if you had any choice.”

“And I shouldn’t have come to you, for of course you went back on your word!”

Loki gave a disbelieving laugh, but no other reaction. “Ha, first, I never actually gave you my word, only asked ‘when do we start?’ Second, and I’ll say it again, pragmatism. Just like it was pragmatic for me to show you the ways I could make our escape with your lady, unnoticed and unsuspected by anyone for hours. A glamour, illusion, invisibility, I could have teleported the three of us straight to the skiffs without any need to terrify the populace with the reappearance of a Dark Elf ship! A ship you didn’t even know how to fly, and so caused great damage to the monuments of the realm. Instead, just before we enter a fight, what do you do but shackleme?”

“You couldn’t be trusted! You would have killed us all if you were free! I still had to stop you from stabbing one of the guards in the back as he ran!” I could see that Thor was clenching and unclenching his right fist, and he was glaring at Loki.

Loki’s blank expression finally changed to one of held back anger. “I remember. ‘No killing,’ you said, after you had fought four guards by yourself, smashing one’s hand and another’s ribcage, then knocking all but one out with a blow to the head. The last fled, rather than facing you alone, and you saw me about to throw a knife. I would not have killed him. Each of the others spent at leastfour days in the healing wing recovering, but I would have only caused a mild headache after waking from the floor. If, with the blade of a throwing knife, I can hit the eye of an opponent about to skewer you on the other side of a battlefield, I can use a similar knife to hit one from across the room with the hilt. I would never have killed one of the Einherjar, the soldiers who have protected me for a thousand years, and Asgard for thousands of years before that. Hagen, the one I would have ‘killed’ if not for your intervention, had a pregnant wife waiting for him at home, and an adult daughter who I taught how to summon a flame from her fingertips centuries ago. Kari, her name is. I did not want to hurt Hagen, but he intended to sound the alarm, and succeeded. Your Idiots Four need not have held off the army until you figured out how to pilot a craft, and not been implicated in treason at all, if you had let me do as I intended.

“Did you know the names of the ones you hurt? Vidar, Egil, and Osmond. Vidar could hardly breathe by the time he was taken to the healers because of his ribs. They feared he would constantly feel pain for the next few months until it healed properly, except I used my magic, in the guise of the Allfather, to help him.

“Egil has a partner, to-be-wife, and since they couldn’t afford the procedure needed to not only heal, but almost regrow the fragile bones in his hand, he had to retire at the age of 2093, about 26 for the mortals of Midgard. He had only just joined the ranks of the Einherjar, and it would have taken at least six years before he could have continued, all the while with a useless hand that made him unable to work. I paid for him, and not through the royal treasury, but my own stores, as the councilors refused to grant anything more than healing stones and basic care to the wounded.

“Osmond has a wife as well, and a five-year-old son. He wondered why his father wouldn’t wake up, as he sat motionless for twice as long as the others. Nine days until they were sure Mjolnir’s magic could no longer undo what they had done to stop the internal bleeding of his brain.”

This was all true. Loki had shared with me his memories of the almost-two years that we had been separated, and this was one of the few things that had angered me the most. Loki couldn’t ‘kill’ anyone, but apparently maiming your own soldiers was okay if you were the Golden Prince of Asgard.

The Prince himself, however, didn’t seem to see it as Loki had explained. “Stop speaking lies! Your Silvertongue could always craft such stories, but this time, I will not fall for them! You go too far! I thought you had died heroically on Svartalfheim, and I had gone to Father to tell him such, only to later learn you had placed yourself on the throne and I had told of your death to your face!" And look, the arcs of lightning were back climbing his body as well.

Loki’s voice was accusing as he spoke. “Are they lies? You left Asgard so quickly in your haste to avoid being king yourself that I don’t think you had any time to check what harm you had done to your realm. 34 civilians were injured by falling debris, and you’re lucky there weren’t more. Most were too afraid to leave their homes after the Dark Elves’ actual attack. They’re all fine, by the way. I had to give many families apologies for how you had acted.”

Thor was roaring now. “Stop, Liesmith! Stop, fabricating falsehoods to make me excuse you! I saw through your illusion in the dungeon, I will see through you now! Come out from behind your field and face me, coward! The victor of a battle will decide whether you escape again this day, not pretty words that none can prove true but yourself!”

Loki laughed again, incredulously, and again only answered parts of Thor’s demands. “Oh, then maybe I should speak of things that you were there to witness. It was so magnanimous of you to stop yourself from beating me senseless while on the ship to Malekith.”

Immediately leaping to his defense, Thor continued to roar. “Because Mother had just died, and she…”

“Wouldn’t want us to fight? Yes, you said. Although, she wouldn’t want us to fight anyway, yet even in the past when I had been bound and magic-less like then, you’ve never once hesitated before, always falling to the blood-lust that has taken you now. You and your shield-mates are all the same.

“Even just that day, I had three of four of them threaten me with death if I betrayed you, which basically only solidified the need for me to find some way to do just that. It wasn’t the first time either, and they were not the only ones. You may not have noticed, but if I dared to win in a spar, or even to save almost any of the older warriors from an opponent who would have sent them to Valhalla early, the next day I’d be left with new bruises and cuts. Is it then so surprising that I grew a sharp tongue to oppose yours and others’ blunt fists? Or developed skills in magic and daggers to block swords?”

“And you wonder why I don’t believe your words! You say that our army’s own warriors attacked you, repeatedly, in public, when all knew they would be killed for treason the moment they were caught. Few would dare to attempt harm on one of Asgard’s royal family!”

“I can quite easily think of one very public occasion where exactly that happened, by yourself, no less.”

Thor’s voice dropped in pitch, and was almost menacing in his anger. “Don’t you dare blame me for something you brought down on yourself. It was your actions alone that caused what happened that day to be necessary.”

“You can’t even say outright what you did to me! I’ll do so for you then, you held me down as they sewed my lips shut,” Loki said bluntly.

“I was acting on Father’s orders! I had no choice!”

“I couldn’t care less that Odin had commanded you. As a Prince, you could have disagreed with your King. As the favoured price, no punishment but a yelling match would have been dealt to you, like always. As a brother, you should have refused. As my brother, you should have told the truth about why I was in that predicament. But you didn’t, and the only reward I got for being instrumental in the re-crafting of that hammer was being unable to even smile without making my mouth bleed.”

“And would you rather I had let them take your head instead?!” It was amusing to me to watch the humans’ heads whip from one god to the other, expressions growing more and more disturbed. The surprised looks directed toward Mjolnir were equally entertaining. Let them ponder that statement for a while.

Loki sneered. “You’d have found I would have been the only one to protest. More might have if they only knew I had survived so once before.”

“Only because within a few seconds I’d held your head to your neck so your magic could reattach it in time. You would have died then if it wasn’t for me, and you would certainly have died that day if I hadn’t restrained you, since your way of settling the bargain would have been rejected soon after.”

“At least I never would have met the Chitauri if I had faced my end then.”

Thor snorted in disbelief. “You expect me to believe you were tortured? You? If faced with it, your self-preservation would have immediately caused you to accept their terms, whatever they were. Which you obviously did, since you came to conquer this world with an army at your back and an infinity stone in your hands. None would give those items to anyone if there was any doubt that they could turn on them.”

When Loki drew back to a fully straight pose, and relaxed all the tension in his body, I knew the final verbal blows were coming up. Physical ones were sure to follow after this, and I was apprehensive for those.

Loki’s tone was now almost conversational, as if he were talking about the weather. “The General may have been an arrogant and overconfident insect, spouting words to annoy only, but there was one thing that it did speak the truth about. Would you like to know what it was? It will undoubtedly bring you joy at the thought that I lived to yours and others’ expectations of me.”

The change in demeanor had obviously caused Thor to flounder. He was now slightly more uncertain, though I would not have been able to tell had I not shared Loki’s memories of Thor from childhood. “I will not stand for this any longer, Loki. Let me…

“It was just as it threatened you, it said a few words in an attempt to distract me from the construction of the cannon. Did you hear it?”

“I tire of this, Loki. End this.”

“End this. Hmm. How many times I thought it would happen. An end. But the void didn’t manage it, so why would the Chitauri.”

“Loki…”

“We didn’t call for you. No, Odinson.” His eyes flashed on the last two words. His voice drew out and ran them together, and he almost spat the final syllable. “We did not call. I admit that we screamed for you. We screamed for you. And you never came!” His voice quieted, then began to grow. “Even though it was my intention, as I first fell into the void, I panicked when I found I couldn’t breathe. The true horror set in when I realised I didn’t need to. That I would keep falling, fully conscious, until either my body died from shock or my mind left me. That realisation was nothingcompared to what came after.”

“Stop.”

Loki only shouted louder. “When I landed it was agony. Lying in a crater of my own making in a foreign area filled with foreign magic, every bone in my body broken, and unable to twitch without another one puncturing something. You never came as the Chitauri took me without effort to their sanctuary, as I suffered for days while they stitched together what they thought fit where, as my magic broke, shifted, and re-healed everything. You never came after a week when I was no longer the only one in the cell they kept me in. You never came as they ripped us apart, as they satisfied their hunger with meat that grew back in hours, as they drained our magic and used us as batteries. You never came as he took control of me to hurt Flare!”

“I said. Stop.”

“As they used my memories to describe how I would kill you, and mother,” he looked to Romanoff for his next words in Thanos’ voice, suddenly quiet. “Slowly, intimately, in every way you know they fear, and just before they travel to my Lady Death, I will release your mind from the touch of the scepter. But not your body, through you, Iwill deliver the final blow to the greatest warrior and strongest sorceress.”

Romanoff’s expression crumpled as he continued, and horror filled her features as she recognised some of the words, and the implications behind them when she determined him to be telling the truth.

“I order you to stop!”

“AS WHAT?” Loki yelled, his focus snapping back to the Prince. “A future-king? A brother? A friend, an acquaintance? As what? You have no hold over me anymore, Thunderer. I will not stop. I will not be your shadow, or your collared dog. I will not obey your every command, nor the Allfather’s. I will do what I want, when I want, how I want, without you leading me on a chain.”

His voice dropped in volume, and he stood like nothing he had said had affected him. “When we were children you used to admire my magic, but that quickly turned to derision. You called me argr and ergi just as much as everyone else. All the warriors called me a coward. All the workers called me womanly. The sorceresses of Asgard hasten the crops, enchant weapons and armour, heal the wounded, bring what few children the Aesir have safely into the world, and direct the flow of Yggdrasil to keep the Realm Eternal afloat, but my magic? My magic is always useless, and I…I am nithing.”

He broke the frozen tableau that the Avengers, Loki, and myself made by stepping around me. For his next points, he emphasised every few by taking a step forward, toward Thor. Each sentence he spoke, his voice changed to the one who had said it.

“Had to poison the womanly arts to have a chance on the battlefield…”

“Turn away, my daughter. Don’t let the Dark Prince see you…”

“Adopting those orphans. The line of Odin has gone soft…”

 “Don’t bother me now, Loki. Speak to your mother…”

“He’s always been jealous of Thor…”

“Probably not even an Odinson…”

“No, Loki…”

 “Wishes to leave the realm at every possible opportunity…”

 “He shames the house of Odin with every breath…”

“Even less of a fight than a Frost Giant would be. A Frost Runt perhaps…”

 “When I’m King, I’ll hunt down the monsters and slay them all…”

“What kind of Prince can be bested by the common-born soldiers…”

“Would rather sneak in the shadows using magic than face his opponent with honour…”

“Know your place, brother.” His final voice imitation was of Thor. “Always was I to stay behind you. Always in your shadow. Always ignored. Always unwelcome. Always forgotten. And if I didn’t obey I was always to be ridiculed, by you as the Prince to a Farmhand’s son at the outskirts of Asgard, and anyone in between. And this ridicule was to always be at no expense. After all, my name is only Loki. The title ‘Prince’ with me was optional.”

He finished mere inches away from the green wall of the force field, the only thing separating him from Thor.

“I have not replaced you with Flare. I’d say I simply gained a sibling, for you are not and never were my brother. If you value your tongue, I suggest you never dare to call me such again.”

The tensing of Thor’s body was the only warning before he launched himself at the force-field, a roar escaping his lips, and Mjolnir extended, aiming for Loki’s head. The collision against the barrier caused a small shockwave, only enough to push Thor back. He didn’t even become unbalanced, but he was still certainly surprised.

I had nearly cried out. I knew that Loki’s magic had to be low, and had fully expected to see him fall as the attack proved to be too great against the barrier. Loki seemed to be completely calm, however, as if he’d anticipated and prepared for it. He didn’t flinch; and probably made a point of not blinking either, though I couldn’t actually see his face. Thor didn’t make any move to attack the force field again, and I now understood why Loki had risked angering him to this point.

Loki tilted his head up a bit, so he was haughtily looking down at Thor. “And with that one action, you have proven every one of my words true. Why else would you have tried to silence me? You wonder why I say I have reasons other than blood to refuse you as my brother, yet in the same minute aim to bludgeon me into submission.”

At this point, I too-hastily removed the last bullet on my person, and one hook tore through skin. I didn’t care though, as I immediately tugged on the mental bond between Loki and myself. He had also become so lost in his anger that the fight would be further prolonged if I didn’t separate them now.

Thor’s lightning was only gaining strength, and Loki would definitely collapse if there was another hit to the barrier. I felt like slapping him when Loki spoke again rather than responding to my call.

“Well, unless you would like to take another swing, I have a higher priority of helping my sister begin to heal an injury she sustained while saving yours and your shield-mates lives.”  With that, Loki walked backwards for a few steps without taking his eyes off the irate Thunderer, reminiscent of the instance in the Helicarrier years previously. The Avengers followed him with their eyes as he spun and continued walking back to me.

‘I understand why you did it, but couldn’t you have waited until after a deal? He’s going to reject anything we ask for, now.’

He came around my right side to crouch next to me again, still keeping watch on Thor. My wing instinctively extended just a little to touch his shoulder in support. Everything he had just said would have had an effect on him just as saying Frigga’s name did.

His hand surreptitiously brushed the lower membrane of that wing in silent reassurance that he was fine. He spoke as he moved. ‘He was too focused on bringing me back to Asgard. He was already moments away from striking the barrier, and though he still wouldn’t have expected it to hold to even one blow, he was lost in his emotions and would only have kept going. At least giving him other things to think about has stopped him for a while. The Avengers themselves might have seen enough to listen to us more readily as well,’ he replied. It made sense, but I wasn’t happy about it.

I sighed mentally. ‘You nearly got lost in anger too. Don’t think I didn’t see it, you would have delivered more barbs if I hadn’t called you.’

His eyes flicked to the side and down slightly in shame before meeting my gaze again. ‘I’m sorry, you are right. There is still a greater likelihood though that he will not attack again, compared to before.’

I suppose. Just try not to give me a heart attack next time. Some warning would have been nice, I would have given the ruse away if I had gasped.’

His tone was teasing. ‘Oh ye of little faith. I knew I could hold one blow easily.’

‘Yes, fine, it worked. I’m still nervous though, I can sense that he hasn’t moved, and his thoughts are a churning mess right now. I need to be able to stand with you as soon as possible in case he tries anything else. The quicker we get a deal made the better, you are already waning, and I will have virtually no magic left after I grow nerves in the rest of the leg. I found another Chitauri over there whose armour doesn’t look to be in too bad shape.’ I sent the mental image of what I saw so he wouldn’t yet have to turn around. The Chitauri in question was a bit of a distance away in the direction of the first, about three times the distance the one behind Thor would have been, but it held less risk. ‘There’s no black sludge covering it at least. Can you get it quickly? I feel too vulnerable down here.’

He confirmed his understanding through the bond, then stood again, ending the conversation. I handed him my black-bladed sword that was still lying on the ground on my other side before he stepped away and out of the barrier again with his own little force field. He kept careful eye on Stark and Vision on either side of the gap, but they didn’t attack.

There was a tense silence as I refused to look at the Thunderer behind me, fearing any more movement from me would cause his temper to flare again.

I needn’t have worried. Apparently sitting there was enough, as not 30 seconds later I felt a burst of anger and heard the whistling of Mjolnir for a fraction of a millisecond before he hit the barrier again.