Nightmare

By Saramagician

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except well,...some scary nightmare for others!

Rate: Rated T just to be safe
Summary: Set during chapter 31 of 'King'. Too much has happened that day, too much stress and worry. No wonder it resulted in nightmares. Only what inner turmoil could they reveal, what fears and more importantly what truths?
Warning: Some violence, bloodshed, and gore. Don't like it, don't read it!
A/N: Hey, practically this is my first story on FF in this fandom (though I have a story off FF), so tell me what you think about it!

Chapter 1: Loki's delirium

"Sir? I believe you should know about this." Jarvis chose the moment when everyone was silent to deliver the message. Tony knew only about one person that Jarvis could be talking about.

"What's up, J? Is it Loki?" Tony.

"What's wrong?" Steve

"Is Loki okay?" Thor.

"What now?" Clint.

If Jarvis was a human being, he would have surely rolled his eyes at these humans that were talking all at once. But because Jarvis wasn't, the AI only calmly answered, but with a hint of worry nevertheless.

"No improvement, sir. But I suggest someone attend Master Loki soon. His body temperature is steadily increasing. Taking into account that his actual temperature is lower than a human's, it is a worrying sign. Please consider taking action."

~*o*0*o*~

It was confusing, one second Loki was burning and didn't where he was, and the next He knew exactly where he was.

It was the final battle, Loki somehow knew it. Astart had made his move very fast, and when they expected it the least. Currently they were fighting Astart's robots and there was no sign of Astart itself.

Loki looked around at his teammates. From what he could see, everyone was failing. Astart knew about their weapons, something that now Loki felt was entirely his fault. While the rational part of his mind said that it wasn't, he couldn't help but feel that he gave out all their secrets. And Astart has used all their secrets against them.

None of their weapons were working well on the robots and it seemed that there was no end to them. Nothing could be seen except the wave after wave, of machines. Every robot they managed to destroy was replaced with ten. The air tasted of blood, ash, and death.

Loki pushed a spelled ice dagger in a robot's head. Three robots took the fallen robot's place. His arm hurt from a cut he received from the enemy. He didn't have time to think why his arm hadn't healed yet, but no, he just had to fight, he didn't have time to think about anything, about all the Midgardians that died, about all the buildings that were burning, about all the fires that were around him; Loki didn't have time to think why Midgard was as hot as Muspelheim's deserts. No, he just had time to fight; duck, attack, create a shield, attack, duck, roll, attack.

He was getting tired, he knew it. He had a sinking feeling in his gut that they were going to fail, that they were going to die. He just knew it. Suddenly, he heard a cry of pain, looked around, but he didn't see who it was. He knew his teammates were fighting somewhere, but all he could see were robots, a sea of robots.

He tried to fight harder... faster, to move towards the direction he thought the cry came from. A wave of heat hit him and he staggered for a second. He was a Jotun and the heat weakened Jotuns. He felt that the wave after wave of heat was coming from the ground and the battlefield was getting warmer and warmer, but he tried to pay it no attention. He tried to continue moving; maybe one of the Avengers needed him. He promised he would help them. Despair engulfed him full force; what if he reached them too late? What if the enemies destroyed Midgard and then moved to Jotunheim?

He managed to push that thought aside, by sheer will. No, he won't let things came to that. He'll stop Astart by any means necessary. He didn't know how the robots haven't overwhelmed him, yet, but he knew that no matter what, he will continue fighting.

At last it seemed that the wall of robots was thinning, Loki could see from between robot bodies that there seemed to be just a few row of them in front of him. He quickened his pace, kicking some out of his way, just caring about reaching the end of this metal wall of robots in front of him.

It felt like an eternity later, when he at last came to the clearing; He pushed aside the last robots, too tired to fight. When he reached the clearing, he stopped; Standing still, his blood was running cold. The clearing was silent; there was no sound of fighting or screams of the Midgardians, but it wasn't a good silence, no, this silence smelled of emptiness. It was suffocating. The air tasted of blood, ash, and death. The rain of ash was falling from the burning buildings that surrounded the area. The infinite army of robots could be seen around the clearing, where there was no building, where most probably once formed streets of Midgard and there, in the clearing was layer upon layer of robots remnants, and on top of them...

... the bodies of the Avengers.

There was a huge gap in the middle of Stark's Iron Man Suit, and the metal around was bent inward. The faceplate was in place, so Loki couldn't see Stark's face. Steve's body was mangled, his arms and legs bent in an unnatural angle, and his head...there was no head. His Star and Strip uniform was in tatters. Barton's body seemed completely unharmed. If it wasn't because of the wide unfocused eyes that stared to eternity and the huge puddle of blood under his head, he would have merely seemed to be asleep. Natasha's face seemed peaceful. She was half leaning on the building wall, and half lying on the ground. Three meter spear was sticking out of her chest and a trickle of blood was running from a corner of her mouth. There was no sign of Bruce Banner or Hulk, just a huge bloody green arm, no more, no less. And Thor...

In the middle of the clearing, battered and bloody was Thor, with Astart having a grip on his neck.

Loki's breath hitched. He couldn't believe his eyes, didn't want to believe. Loki was always in control of his emotions, but at that moment he couldn't stop admitting to himself that he did not wanted them dead and that he would...miss them. Yes, they were mere mortals, with fleeting lives, but those five were...

Special mortals.

And somewhat despite his better judgment, despite the fact that he told them he was there just for business, he got attached to them. And seeing their dead bodies made him feel a pang in his heart. Suddenly, what they said, all those insults didn't matter anymore. They were dead and nothing about their shared past mattered any more. But Thor was still alive, he could still help him. Thor, who he called brother for centuries, who had always managed to hurt Loki; one way or another. Loki looked at the battered body of Thor, and something in his heart fell down.

At that moment Loki wasn't afraid, he was terrified, because no matter how much he said he hated Thor, no matter how many times he denied their brotherhood, no matter how many times he rejected Thor... he didn't want Thor dead.

On that matter, he didn't want any of his new teammates dead, and he already had failed in helping them so far.

Loki's heart was pounding in his chest. His quick mind was stuck, not knowing what to do. The image of the Avengers mangled bodies and Thor's helpless condition has made his own body and mind freeze, but his heart was pounding in his chest, in his head. When he looked at Astart's face, he rather felt than heard the next words that Astart spoke.

"Did you think you can save any of them, Jotun runt? I saved this one for you, so I can kill him while you watch." And like he had finished his speech, though he didn't said even one word, Astart impaled Thor with a spear from behind. The spear came out form Thor's chest and a scream filled the air. Loki didn't know the scream was Thor's scream of pain, or his scream of desperation and shock, a completely different pain to Thor's. Then Astart threw Thor's body toward Loki and in the process pulled out the spear. Loki tried to move forward fast, to take Thor, before he fell down, but he came too late. Thor's body hit the ground full force.

In the next instant Loki was beside Thor, taking him in his arms, trying to heal the wound with magic, to stop the bleeding, whatever he could to save Thor. It seemed nothing worked. His hands and the ground below were soaked in blood. He was bent over Thor's upper body one hand on the wound and was kinda rocking back and forth. Saying incomprehensible nonsense which neither of them coould understand, all the while keeping eye contact with Thor and saying all he wanted to actually say; about being strong, about fighting, about him being an stupid oaf. He was so engrossed that at first he didn't notice the change. When the blackness came to Thor's face he noticed it. It was like a poison spreading through Thor's veins.

Only it wasn't inside and it wasn't spreading though Thor's veins - it was just under the skin, and it was spreading in...a pattern! Loki understood the patterns with a jolt, it was like his edged patterns when he was in his Jotun form. As if this thought had triggered it, the blackness started to eat at Thor's skin like acid and instead of the smooth white skin, there was edged blue/black skin, and the blue was spreading. Before Loki could comprehend what was happening, right in front of his eyes, Thor's form turned to Helblindi's. The pained blue eyes turned to the pained red ones.

A gasp escaped Loki's mouth as he stared wide-eyed at the form of his brother. He was horrified. What has happened? It wasn't supposed to happen! No, this could not happen!

He clung to the form of Helblindi. Not after everything that happened, this could not happen! He can't lose him, not now, not when he had just found him! The tears gathered in Loki's eyes, as he remembered every second they spent together. When they sat in the silence for hours, Helblindi giving his support by just being there. When he comforted Loki by his words. Helblindi always knew what Loki needed, when he needed, how he needed.

Loki couldn't breathe properly; the air got stuck in his throat, air with a taste of blood, ash, and death.

His heart was breaking, his soul was aching. He didn't know what to do as he saw the light vanishing from Helblindi's eyes little by little. A sob was stuck in his throat as he looked at his brother's form. His little brother who was bigger than him. Who knew more than him about his home; who was always there for him. And suddenly the weight of loneliness, desperation, and fear swallowed him. The feeling of being a failure. All Loki's insecurities resurfaced as he watched his worst fear develop before his eyes.

Helblindi opened his mouth and said just one word. "Brother". And Loki's heart broke anew at hearing that tired anguished voice. A sob escaped his lips. He put a hand on Helblindi's cheek, now sobbing openly as the only treasure in his life was being taken from him.

"Ssh, everything going to be alr-right" His voice broke at the last word.

"Brother, Jotunheim...Jotuns_" Helblindi's words were cut off by a coughing feet. Too weak to cough properly, his breath stuck in his throat. A trickle of blood came running out of corner of his mouth. Loki cleaned it with his thumb.

"Ssh, I'll protect Jotunheim with my life, I promise" Loki tried to comfort, but when he saw the way Helblindi's eyes looked around, he brought his head up and for the first time noticed his surroundings. Suddenly it wasn't Midgard anymore. Now he was kneeling on the snows of Jotunheim and instead of a rain of ash falling down on them, it was a soft snow. He looked around and his heart skipped a beat. Instead of the bodies of Avengers, there were hundreds of Jotun bodies, painting the white ground below with their blood. Instead of the buildings of Midgard, there were beautiful arches and temples of Jotunheim that were half destroyed.

It was completely silent - a heavy silence. A suffocating silence. The air tasted of blood, ash, and death. Even though there was no fire and no ash. And... with a jolt Loki realized instead of a layer upon layer of robots, there were also the bodies of the Chitauri. Loki turned toward where Astart stood just minutes before, and shuddered. There in the middle stood Thanos. At seeing the look of fear and anguish on Loki's face Thanos laughed, a cold laughter, colder than the winters of Jotunheim, which made Loki shudder.

"And I thought torturing you and playing with your mind was enjoyable. But this broken, pained look is very much more enjoying. Did you think you can escape me, Jotun runt? Especially after you failed me? And look what you brought to them, by just existing." He gestured to their surroundings, to the dead bodies of the Jotuns.

Instinctively, Loki tried to bring Helblindi's body closer to himself to hug it protectively, but in his hands Helblindi's body turned to ashes. The more he tried to get them, to hold them, the faster they escape from between his fingers. An anguished cry escaped him. A laugher from above him startled him. He looked up and stared at the blue eye of Odin.

"I thought a monster could be brought up to be something other than a monster, but I was wrong, and now by ending you, I Odin Alfather, in name of my father and his father before him, destroy all monsters!"

And with that he brought down his spear, and everything went black.