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Over the noise of battle, Loki could still hear Amora’s laughter. It was a specific laugh reserved only for fighting Thor, Loki knew. Her ‘I’m going to pretend to be an asshole because I really care about you and you hurt my feelings’ laugh. Despite the eternity they’ve known one another, her voice always had a way of coiling around Loki’s lungs and stealing his breath.
At times, in between battles, she would speak to him alone and her voice would dip low and warm. Loki liked to pretend it was just for him, that voice. The woman spoke like honey and gravity and danger, and Loki had to pretend like she hadn’t made heat rush to his cheeks on more than one occasion.
Not that he was interested in her romantically, of course. Amora had always been into muscular heroic types and Loki was far too busy to consider something other than an allyship anyway.
Loki took a quick look towards where the laughter was coming from.
Amora stood beside the large glass ball they had painstakingly crafted with their combined magical strength. Once they were able to fully activate it, they’d be able transform the mighty thunder god into a mere mortal, leaving the avengers utterly vulnerable to their attacks. However, plans were cut short by an unexpected avenger intervention before it was ready, leading to their current situation.
Amora was taking on Thor right next to the glass, while Loki stood at the bottom of the metal steps — preventing Captain America and Falcon from climbing any higher. Iron Man had already been locked inside his suit by Loki’s magic and the Black Widow had been dropped through a portal to Australia by a quick word from Amora.
Amora and Thor were having a conversation, but the whirring of the glass ball was too loud for him to hear the words.
With a wave of his hands, Loki caught the Captain’s incoming shield in a cloud of green mist and threw it towards the flying Falcon, knocking the poor man through a window.
Captain America wasn’t one to give up without a fight though, and came at Loki with fists alone. It was a quick fire battle, but Loki’s eventually won out when he gained a lucky shot that knocked the Captain to the ground.
He was about to continue his assault when Amora yelled something louder than before. Loki looked around to see her gathering a mass of green energy in her hands, a bigger spell than the ones she had been slinging at Thor for the past few minutes.
Loki watched, a warning waiting on the tip of his tongue about using magic in the unstable environment around the glass ball. Too late he opened his mouth to speak, as Amora had already fired the spell at Thor.
With the magical uru, Thor’s quick reflexes allowed him to hit the spell back at its caster. Amora gasped as she was struck by her own spell and Loki felt his heart drop. He quickly slammed a kick into the Captain’s head before he ran halfway up the stairs.
But Amora was still standing, still breathing. She seemed dazed and confused, head in her hand, but seemingly unharmed.
Loki stopped.
Of course. Amora wouldn’t send a killer spell at Thor.
Still, whatever her spell had done left her stood still instead of continuing the fight. Thor took the opportunity to shove her out of his way.
“Step aside, witch. I’ll end this once and for all.” He raised his hammer.
Loki’s eyes widened as he realised what was about to happen. He rushed forward again, arms outstretched. “Thor, you fool! Don’t-“
He brought the hammer down, the glass cracked only slightly.
Loki let out a short breath.
Then the glass ball exploded outwards.
Even with reactions fast enough to form a basic shield, Loki was still knocked to the ground by the impact of glass shards and the powerful magic they once contained.
Loki groaned as he pushed himself upwards, and then he felt it. His magic leaving him, a piece of him he never knew was a piece of him until it was starting to rip away.
He looked up. Amora and Thor were both flat on the floor. Closer to the impact, no shields.
Loki ran. In a moment he was by the side of both his brother and his ally. Thor seemed better off, his armour had taken most of the cutting damage and the moments of retained godhood had protected him from much damage by the glass. A few cuts to the arms and face — all grazes — he’d be fine under the avengers’ care.
Amora on the other hand…
Several shards had embedded themselves in her scantily protected body. She was already ghastly pale, shockingly white against the small pool of crimson that had already gathered around her. Her bodice, her skirt, the tips of her hair… all coated in the stuff.
Loki wanted to vomit, but he knew he didn’t have much time until what remained of his powers left him. He spoke to the universe as he always did, and it brought him back to Amora’s home.
He dumped her on the couch. She would likely berate him later about staining her too-white furniture red, but he cast that thought aside. He dug as much of the glass from her body as possible so her body could heal while she still had some magic left, letting the shards drop to the carpeted floor.
He stopped when he noticed the healing slowing down. If he took out anymore, she mightn’t heal at all and could end up bleeding out on him.
A light groan escaped Amora’s lips and Loki watched as her eyes slowly flickered open. Her emerald eyes danced as they scanned her surroundings, but as they landed on Loki, she froze.
She was probably in shock after so much had happened to her, Loki concluded. “Amora, it’s alright. We’re back home now.”
She tried to push herself up to sitting with one arm but after only a moment of being able to look around, she fell back down and let out a little gasp of pain.
“You’re hurt, idiot, I can help you up.” Loki put his hand on Amora’s arm and leaned closer.
Simultaneously Amora grabbed Loki’s long hair in one hair and pulled while she reached to the ground to grab one of the glass shards. Loki winced at the pained noise she made when his head ended up falling onto her chest.
She wrapped one of her legs around him and kept his hair in a tight grip, holding the shard close to his throat. “Where am I?” She demanded. Though she sounded angered, Loki’s practiced ear could hear the fear underneath.
His eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “What are you-?”
Across the room, space-time ripped in half and expanded outwards into a portal to allow Skurge to step through. The portal closed behind him and as he scanned the scene in front of him, his grip on his axe tightened.
“What did Loki do?” He growled out.
“What did I do?!” Loki objected.
Skurge shrugged. “You’re usually the cause of every problem.”
“You know what? That’s fair.” Loki conceded.
Skurge looked the two of them over again. “So… what’s happening? I’m guessing things went wrong seeing as how you abandoned me in the middle of a battle with the Avengers.”
“Oops.” Loki said unapologetically.
“What’s going to happen is that I’m going to slit pretty boy’s throat if I don’t get answers.” Amora hissed out. “Who are you people? Where am I?”
“So, very wrong then.” Skurge concluded.
Loki tried his best to shrug. “You could say that, yeah.”
Skurge’s mouth twitched. “Pretty boy?”
“I think I’m more regal and devilishly handsome myself.”
“I think you should take what you’re given.”
Amora scraped the shard against Loki’s shoulder. He jumped at the sharp pain. “Ow! Amora! What the fuck?!”
“You didn’t answer my questions!”
“So you fucking stab me with glass?! I thought you were bluffing this whole time!”
“I’ll stab you in the eye next time.”
Loki sighed. “ Bor’s blood, Amora. I’m Loki, that cinderblock over there is Skurge. We’re your…”
Loki looked to Skurge for help with how to sum up over a thousand years of complex relationships. He shrugged unhelpfully.
“... friends? And we’re in your penthouse, New York, Earth, Midgard. You were hurt in a battle.”
“Swear to me on the life of the person you love most.”
“Really?”
She held the shard close to his eye. “Swear!”
He held up his hands. “I swear on Thor’s name that every word I say is true!”
Skurge scoffed.
Loki shot him a look. “What?”
“You have a funny way of showing your affection.”
“Shut up!”
“You too,” Amora said, looking to Skurge. “Swear on someone’s life.”
“My lady, by the name of the Enchantress, neither of us mean you any harm.”
Amora unwound her leg and released Loki’s hair, withdrawing the shard but keeping it in hand. “What’s going on?”
“In the battle you tried to hit someone with a spell, but it reflected and hit you instead. I think you were trying to erase his memories.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Who knows? You two are complicated.”
“Tell me about it.” Skurge muttered.
“But more importantly is that a device we made to turn someone mortal has also turned us mortal, stealing both healing factors and magic. Neither of us can heal these wounds you’ve got and I can’t return your memories myself. We need help.”
“You mean…” Skurge started.
Loki nodded. “Lorelei.”
“Who’s Lorelei?” Amora asked.
“Your sister.” He replied.
Amora gasped. “I have a sister? What’s she like?”
Loki and Skurge exchanged a look again.
“She’s…” Loki began. “Smart. And pretty. And powerful. And…”
“Short.” Skruge finished.
Loki nodded. “Very short.”
Amora smiled. “When will she be coming?”
“That’s a little complicated.” Loki scratched the back of his neck. “Lorelei likes to keep to herself. Without magic, it’ll be hard for either of us to find her. I don’t exactly have her phone number. Skurge will have to find her instead.”
Amora scrunched her nose at the mention of a ‘phone number’, obviously not understanding the concept, but she moved off her confusion at the mention of the bigger man. “You have magic?”
Skurge shook his head. “Not exactly.”
“Skurge is the best tracker in the Nine Realms.” Loki elaborated. “If anyone can find her it’s him.”
Amora nodded. “Send her my best when you find her.”
Loki snorted, which earned a confused look from Amora. “I just… she’ll be surprised is all.”
“I’ll be back later.” Skurge said. “Don’t die while I’m gone.”
With that said, Skurge sliced his axe through the air and stepped through the portal it created.
“So,” Amora began, “Now what?”
Loki really didn’t know.