Author's Note: Whoa! Guys! Thank you so much for your responses! =) It's been so awesome to hear about all these good things in the midst of this past week! =) Thank you again!
I have treasured your comments! =)
Sorry, this would have been out sooner, but I finished the original draft of this chapter and then decided I hated it and ended up re-planning the entire story. =D
Disclaimer: I own it. It's all mine and I'm greedy and selfish, so not going to share. I also have my fingers crossed and am lying through my teeth. :)
Warnings for this chapter: Description of injury, some gore
Chapter Three:
The force of the pull through time is enough to offset him, but Steve doesn't nearly face-plant like he did earlier in New York. His senses still sputter with discomfort, and the strange tight itch is still prominent, but the desire to heave is little, and, after some effort, easily ignorable.
His boots touch the solid floor of the Avenger's Compound, and he exhales sharply in relief even as he stumbles.
It worked.
They returned back to their year without anything awful happening in the process of the jump. Steve has the Mind Stone, and Rocket Time, so they have been successful in their part of the mission. Home. They're home.
He can breathe properly again. There was a lingering sense in his mind as they remained in 2012 that would whisper you don't belong here, and it made him want to ram his head against the nearest wall as it only got stronger and stronger with every passing minute. But it's over now, they got Loki's scepter, they have the Time Stone. His part in the retrieval is completed. Breathe.
Steve switches the briefcase to his other hand, and shakes his wrist a little as numbing sensation strains his fingers. He knows that it's from the Mind Stone. They emit too much power to simply feel or act like normal rocks. Standing around Vision for to long would make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and his entire body numb to most anything.
It's like a drug, and the worst part is, Steve likes it. At least, that's what the Stones insist to him. It's a call that he'd been ignoring for years—and that, admittedly, frightens him. He's not going to collect the Stones for what Thanos did. They're corrupted. There's something wrong with them. He's not going to gather them together to cause as much destruction and death that Thanos did.
He can't; even though they whisper lies to him.
He's lost too much to the Stones to want anything to do with them.
Maybe he's weak for it, but he doesn't even want to touch them after knowing they slaughtered trillions. This whole mission is to fix that, but if he can't even manhandle the Stones, they aren't going to get very far in it. And this has to succeed, because Steve doesn't know what he's going to do if it doesn't.
He can't move on.
He doesn't know how.
Tony releases a sharp breath and twists his time-watch to remove the white suit of armor into the watch as nano-tech. Steve's not really sure how it works, honestly, but most of Tony's inventions have been a little beyond him anyway. He's just glad that Tony succeeded in making the space suits, and that nothing went wrong in the jump.
He twists his time-watch as well, realizing then that when they arrived in New York, the suits were automatic in turning on and off. Hopefully this doesn't mean something terrible. Frankly, the fact that nothing exploded in Tony's workshop when he built this probably means that he didn't do as many tests as they should have.
And Steve doesn't blame him.
They found Scott a little under thirty-six hours ago. There hasn't been a lot of time for them to prepare for this adequately. Not to the extent that Steve likes to be, at least. He hates jumping into things without several plans of advance. If they'd been thinking straight when they went after Thanos, and not set on simply protecting Vision and stopping Thanos from doing anything bad—how little they knew of what he could do—then they would have been successful.
Maybe.
Steve hates to contemplate this, but his mind so often returns here.
Steve clenches the handle of the briefcase tighter, and tilts his head up as he sees the other Avengers jump from their time zones to the platform. Someone from the corner of his eye immediately topples to their hands and knees, but he doesn't glance in their direction as the powerful waves of the Infinity Stones smack into him.
The numbing is back at full force, but it's so powerful that Steve wants to be sick.
This reminds him of when he grabbed at the Gauntlet in and effort to stop Thanos and then—it's not helping anyone for his thoughts to be wandering this much.
Get a grip, Rogers.
He gives his body a moment to adjust to the sensation and song of the Infinity Stones crying towards him, grounding himself to now as he focuses on his team. His eyes scan over everyone in a quick, desperate headcount. Tony, Scott, and Rocket were with him, so he knows that they're fine, but everyone else...Rhodes and Nebula are standing side by side with the Power Stone in the former's hands, Clint is holding the Soul, and he spots the blue light of the Tesseract clutched in Thor's hand before he really sees the Asgardian himself.
His stomach does something funny as he sees who Thor is squatting down beside.
The person who toppled wasn't Thor like Steve had first thought, it was Loki.
Thor really did it. He actually brought his sibling back with him into now and—Steve doesn't...he's not sure what to think about this. Loki is going to be a problem no matter what Thor insists, and Steve doesn't have a strong desire to fight off another alien invasion in the midst of trying to deal with the snap.
They need to retrieve the Vanished, and, well, who's to say that Loki won't side with Thanos and try to stop them? Steve doesn't know Loki. Not really. He's a wild card, yes, but he is a villain. Ex-villain? Steve heard from Bruce a few times—admittedly skeptically from the scientist's mouth—about how Loki supposedly helped save Asgard from Hela, but he's really not sure how much of that story he believes.
With everything that happened in New York, it's hard to see Loki wanting to play hero. (You're one to talk, Rogers. You chased after a villain you claim as a brother for years. Bucky was different. How? It wasn't his decision, Loki was in his right mind).
Steve forces his gaze to pull away from the Asgardian siblings and realizes with a slight jolt that he didn't see Natasha's familiar fiery red hair among the group. He scans the gathering of Guardians and Avengers again before his stomach drops with horror as he once again doesn't spot the master assassin.
She's not here.
She's not here.
No. Steve can't—not her. Please. Please. Please.
Steve feels himself visibly fidget before he turns to Clint, trying to keep his hands from shaking or releasing the scepter's case. "Clint," his voice is so much more horrified than he wanted in the open, "where's Nat?"
Clint's expression says everything. It's opened, gutted raw with agony, and it makes Steve's chest heave with the desire to scream. No. After all their other losses, why can't fate be merciful to them, once, and allow them this? Allow the Avengers to stay together? Natasha is the only thing that's kept everyone from falling apart these last five years. After everything and now she's—no. She can't—not dead. Not dead. Not dead. Please, he can't—
Tony's hand grips his shoulder suddenly, and it jars him from his rapidly descending thoughts.
"Clint," the multi-billionaire's voice sounds both exhausted and barely a contained shout.
"She's not coming back." Clint manages to grit between his teeth. "He took her. He took her and she's not—" his voice cracks. He turns his head away, refusing to meet their eyes, "she jumped so I wouldn't have to."
What?
What jumping?
Steve doesn't understand! It's—pull yourself together. You don't have time for this.
Steve exhales sharply, and digs his hand deeper around the metal hilt for the Mind Stone. Natasha's gone. She's gone and she's not coming back. They were supposed to see each other in a minute, and now Steve doesn't even know where her body is. Nebula refused to say, she was in charge of the coordinates, but she refused to give more than that.
Out of respect for her late sister's last wish, Steve was assuming, but now he wants to grab her by the shoulders and rattle her back and forth. The least they can do for Natasha is let her rest in peace, bury her in a coffin somewhere on Earth. He doesn't even know where she'd want to rest forever. Steve refused to talk about funerals after the one they held for the Vanished Avengers.
Dead.
Natasha is—
He has to be dreaming. He never really thought that anything could take Natasha from them. Now she's—"Alright," Steve's voice is deceptively level, he wants to scream, "we'll fix this. When we snap. We'll make it right."
He doesn't know if they can, but he refuses to give up so easily.
"Okay," Tony agrees as if trying to reaffirm what Steve said, "we can do that. If he killed half of everyone, we can bring back one person. It won't be a problem because—what the—!?" Tony's entire posture seizes and Steve raises his shield in defense even though he doesn't know what the threat his. Adrenaline is pumping through his veins and he rapidly follows Tony's gaze to see it leveled on where Loki is still kneeling.
Thor's hand is gently resting on Loki's shoulder, but as the attention of the room shifts to them, Thor's gaze flicks away as his free hand strains for something, and Loki's eyes briefly close in what looks like exhaustion.
Now that Steve's really focusing, the younger Asgardian looks awful. His hair is a mess—Steve didn't even know it was naturally curly until today—and his entire posture seems...slanted. His face is a mess of cuts and bruises, but the lingering sense of tired is really what strikes Steve the most.
Even despite this, Loki looks less dead than the last time Steve saw him. He hadn't realized what a mess the Asgardian was on the Helicarrier until he compares the two images in his head.
"You actually did it," Tony's voice is toneless and flat, "I didn't think you were serious."
Neither did Steve, honestly. And if Thor wasn't serious, then he didn't...really...think that Thor would be successful. (How awful that is.) Thor is not a failure, and Steve doesn't blame him for the snap. He doesn't. He never did. But he—didn't think that Loki would agree, maybe. He didn't think that Thor would really drag his psychopathic brother back to 2023.
Thor's expression flickers with something Steve can't quite pinpoint at Tony's words. Anger, maybe, perhaps hurt, but Loki appears to draw himself together before rising to his feet in a fluid movement. His face is dissembled, and the slant of his posture is a lot less obvious.
Bruce has moved away from the controls, his stance wary.
Every eye is lingering on them, and Thor shrinks beneath the attention.
Loki smooths a messy piece of dark hair away from his face, and doesn't quite smile, "You're all looking well. Some new Midgardian health secret I should be aware of?"
Steve sees Nebula's hand go to her sword, and Scott visibly flinches. Tony takes a step forward, his hand shaking with anger. "No. No. Don't you start, Psychopath—" Thor makes a noise in the back of his throat, "—don't you dare make this about you. We just lost a sister, and if you think that this is somehow about you, stick it."
Loki draws back a little. "It wasn't my intention to stall you from your grief."
Tony smiles bitterly, "Right. You're empathetic like that."
Loki's head tilts a little as if debating that, "I would say it safe to assume, Stark, that you don't know me."
Tony snorts, "Because there's that much complexity." Loki smiles a little, and Steve nearly winces. If the Helicarrier has any experience they can go by, Loki's smiles don't mean anything pleasant. What was Thor thinking? This was an awful idea. Did he really expect that he could bring Loki here and it would somehow keep him tame? That it wouldn't cause more problems than solve them?
Their one goal is to return the Vanished, and if Loki gets in the way of that, Steve's not afraid to fight him. But until then, there's little need to be actively picking the battle out. "Tony," Steve rests a hand on his teammate's shoulder, and the multi-billionaire deflates visibly, but he's blinking rapidly. His eyes are wet. The anger is still there, but Steve can see the grief more prominent.
He can feel it in himself, too.
They need to focus.
They aren't going to get anything done by running in circles.
Loki's eyes rapidly flit across the room again as if trying to process everything, but it stills abruptly, and Steve lifts his shield a little more, bracing himself as he switches the scepter's case to his freehand.
What is he looking at?
Loki looks as though he's seen a ghost. His face has paled before it darkens.
"You—" Loki breathes in an exhale before he lifts his hands towards his chest and, in a sharp "x" looking shape, draws two daggers and leaps across the room. Every hand goes for a weapon, and Steve's shield and Tony's repulsors barely miss Loki's heels before the Asgardian jumps forward a little further and tackles Nebula to the floor.
"Nithing skrímsli!" Loki hisses at her face.
What the—?
Do they know each other?
Nebula shoves him off, hand drawing one of her weapons as Loki slashes towards her face, managing to cut above her mechanic eye. Nebula cries out loudly before Loki draws her into a choke hold and lowers his dagger to gut her in the stomach. Clint grabs his wrist before he can accomplish the task, and Steve catches his shield, running towards the epicenter of the chaos.
Loki twists out of Clint's grip with startling ease and flicks a hand. Clint is thrown backwards several feet by some sort of force and lands hard on his back, skidding, and Steve sees the Soul Stone go flying somewhere. It's the least of his concerns. Bruce moves towards the archer, and the rest of them get closer to Nebula and Loki, but Steve doesn't know how to interfere without harming the Guardian.
Curses!
"Hey!" Rocket yells in anger as Nebula lowers her head and bites Loki's forearm.
Loki draws back his expression pitched with pain before Rocket fires and shoots him in the shoulder. Loki immediately jerks back as Thor makes a little noise, and Tony lifts out his repulsor rays, looking ready to fire Loki full of holes.
Steve grabs Tony's forearm to stop him.
Nebula scrambles away from Loki and lifts out her sword, pressing the tip against Loki's chin. The Asgardian is gripping at his injured shoulder tightly, but even as the sharp edge is placed against his neck, he doesn't seem awfully concerned. "Rot in Helheim," Loki hisses up at her.
Nebula huffs without mirth, unfazed, "You'll be there to join me. My father's been meaning to speak with you, Little King. He sends his regards."
Loki's face drains of color abruptly, but Steve's entire mind skids to a halt. What the heck is going on? Nebula and Loki know each other? Since when? Steve feels like it would have been brought up in a conversation before, and it wasn't so—what—?
Sends.
She said sends his regards.
Thanos has been dead for five years.
Thor grabs the woman's shoulder and drags her away from his brother, "Get off him," he demands harshly, wringing the weapon from Nebula's grip. She staggers back a step and her gaze is almost confused, as if she's never seen Thor before.
Thor stands in front of Loki, and Steve can taste ozone in the air.
Steve releases Tony's arm, "That's enough." He commands sharply, "Everyone agree not to shoot anyone else?" Rocket doesn't look guilty in the slightest. Blood is leaking through Loki's fingers where the hole is. "Someone explain, now," Steve demands, looking between the Guardian and Loki.
"She's a liar," Loki grits between his teeth, "yet you defend her as if she's important."
"She's my family, moron," Rocket growls, "touch her again and I won't miss in between your eyes."
Thor visibly flinches.
Steve's muscles lock.
Despite Loki's expression being one that could easily murder healthy verdure, Nebula doesn't shrink under it. "I don't know who you are," Nebula states blankly, but there's something desperate about her tone. Steve doesn't believe her. Not really. The loathing that's flashing between both their faces isn't something that can be pretend.
Loki scoffs loudly, "The Master would be disappointed in your performance, Dear Nebula; you're flaking." He knows her by name, though they were never introduced. These two have a history, and Steve doubts it has anything to do with making friendship bracelets.
"Shut up," Nebula commands harshly, hand straying towards her other sword, but Thor lifts the one he stole from her. Weapons raise around the room again. Loki clicks his tongue a little, and shifts to ease some of the pressure from his arm as Nebula grips the hilt tighter. "Shut it!"
"Stop!" Steve commands, trying to gain a small grasp of control, but it's hopeless. Everything is slipping between his hands like running water, and he doesn't know how to make that stop. This is a mess. If Thor hadn't brought Loki back then they'd be dismantling the casings for the Infinity Stones and maybe an hour from bringing everyone back.
Now?
Now Steve doesn't know and he hates it.
Nebula releases her sword hilt, "I'm not going to fight," she reassures—thank you—lifting her hands a little and shifts until she's resting a hand on Thor's shoulder. Thor visibly tightens, "At ease," Nebula instructs. Thor's hand is still wrapped around the sword hilt, and Steve realizes for the first time that Thor doesn't have Stormbreaker with him.
Nebula isn't going to fight, she's going to handle this without bloodshed, and Steve has never respected her more for it. Steve's breath escapes him harshly.
Loki lurches forward, eyes narrowed, "Get your hands off of my brother!"
Nebula doesn't, if anything, she tightens the grip as if trying to make a point.
"Alright," Rhodey commands, "let's just calm down before anyone gets incinerated, yeah?"
Loki ignores him entirely, and staggers to his knees a hand lifted even as he visibly sways, Steve's shield raises, wary, but nothing that warrants diving for cover happens. Loki clenches his fist, and it isn't until Nebula makes a strangled noise that what he's doing clicks. Nebula's feet are lifted from the earth and Loki's dragged her away from Thor in a choke hold.
"Stop—" Scott starts.
"What are you doing!?" Rocket demands.
"Reindeer Games—"
This feels too bizarre to be real. Steve's seen Star Wars—and frankly wasn't impressed—but the comparison between Darth Vader's frequent choke holds isn't lost to him. It's the first thing that pops into his head, honestly. The second? This has gone far enough and it needs to stop now. Steve drops the shield and dives forward, tackling Loki to the ground of the platform again. He hears Nebula land with a thud behind them, but he's more focused on the dark-haired Asgardian.
Loki immediately struggles, but Steve grabs his hands and pulls them behind his back in a twisting motion, keeping a death grip on his forearms. He knows that he's bending Loki's wrists hard enough to snap them, but he can't bring himself to care. Loki hasn't even been here for five minutes and he's already almost killed someone and attacked others.
Steve's gaze briefly flicks up to find Clint, and sees that the archer is standing next to Bruce his bow lifted and loaded.
This was a terrible idea.
They need a detention cell and handcuffs at least.
Nebula's head smacks against the ground and Steve winces a little for her sake. The gold plate above her eye—the one that Loki dislodged when he swiped at her face with his daggers—where did those go? Steve can't see them anywhere—slips out completely.
Rocket scrambles over to her, Tony a second behind and helps her into a sitting position, "You good?" Tony demands. Nebula's head lifts and Steve realizes that—unlike what he was thinking—the golden plate's removal didn't open a hole into a mess of circuits. It's silver plated and completely clean. Rocket's entire body freezes.
Loki struggles a little in his grip, and Steve draws his hands up his back a little more. A slight noise escapes the Asgardian, and Thor turns to him, opening his mouth as if to argue, but no sound comes out.
"...Well enough," Nebula grits her voice hoarse. She rubs at her forehead a little, staring at Tony with slightly wide eyes.
Rocket's gun raises towards her face and Steve hears the buzz as it powers up. Steve feels his face drain of color and frustration spark through him, again; is anyone not going to try and kill Nebula today? Rocket and Nebula have been working together for more than five years, Steve would think that if they were going to kill each other, they'd already have done it.
"Whiskers, what—?" Tony starts.
"Who the heck are you, and what did you do with Nebula?" Rocket demands harshly at Nebula, finger straying towards the trigger, "Where is my sister, flimflammer?"
Tony draws back suddenly, and Nebula's face drains of color. Steve nearly drops his hold on Loki. What? Nebula's—this...he doesn't understand. This isn't Nebula? How could it not be? Didn't Danvers mention that there's some sort of species that can shapeshift? Is this one of them? Carol said that she'd been gathering them for decades, though, and that they weren't evil.
Something to that extent, Steve wasn't paying as much attention as was probably nice.
The Maybe-Nebula stares at Rocket for a moment before she appears to gather herself, "What are you talking about?"
Rocket doesn't lower the weapon, "You're not my Nebula, idiot, a blind man could see that. So," he presses the tip of the weapon against Nebula's chest, where her heart, one of her few—from Steve's understanding—living organs, is, "let's try this one more time. Where is she?"
"Rocket, maybe—" Tony starts, but Rocket flicks his head up towards him, likely scowling.
Nebula grips the barrel of the gun, "You're being ridiculous."
"Yeah?" Rocket challenges, "What Stone did you and Rhodes just leave to collect?"
"I…" This appears to throw her, and her fists clench and something tight wraps around his stomach. Nebula's not here. Not their Nebula, which means that she must have been left behind. This woman is wearing the time-watch that Nebula should have across the back of her left hand. Someone stole her.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
None of this is going according to any semblance of a plan they had.
"My point exactly," Rocket growls, "I'd start explaining if I were you."
Not-Nebula's gaze flicks across them, but none of them shift to her defense. Apparently realizing that she has no allies or believers anymore, the woman tenses before she scrambles to her feet and then makes a dive towards where Steve dropped the Mind Stone's case nearly two minutes earlier. Maybe. He can't remember letting go of it.
Steve's muscles lurch and he releases Loki, jumping for his shield as Tony fires several blasts towards her. A loud yell escapes her, reassuring Steve that Tony's aim was true. He manages to grab the vibranium and balances the weight, throwing it towards the woman.
Not-Nebula catches the weapon and manages to get the locks on the scepter open, pulling it out.
Steve scrambles to stand beside Tony, all of them tense, but uncertain how to proceed. "Put the scepter down," Steve lifts his hands to try and calm the agitation, but Not-Nebula's gaze flicks away from him.
Her grip tightens. She looks prepared to bolt, but unwilling to turn her back to them. Steve can see the charred metal and smoking wires from where Tony hit her.
"Clint," Steve says breathlessly; the archer lifts his bow and Not-Nebula takes her chances. She turns and leaps from off the platform making a break for the exit. Multiple things happen at once in a blur Steve barley processes. Thor pitches the stolen sword catching her leg and it sends her tumbling forward as Bruce tackles her to the ground; Clint's explosive arrow tearing the scepter from Not-Nebula's grip.
Steve doesn't bother to linger, he scrambles off of the edge of the platform and joins Bruce on the ground floor, slamming his hands down on one of Not-Nebula's hands to keep her from moving. Scott joins him, Tony taking the other side as Rhodey grabs the scepter. Rocket levels a weapon towards Not-Nebula's face.
Clint unwinds a length of rope from an arrow, and, after Steve gives him an affirmative nod, grabs one of her wrists wrapping it with the cord and then takes the other. The woman struggles, but the knots are more than she can wiggle from, and Rocket shoots through the palm of her robotic hand when she tries to re-shape her hand into a knife.
Not-Nebula cries out in pain and then her head slumps with some defeat.
Steve scrambles back, exhausted and tries not to let it show so openly. He wants tear at his hair and scream, but he can't do that now. Not in front of the others. Steve bites sharply at his gums and exhales through his teeth.
Tony looks up at him, and Steve realizes that he's waiting for him to call it.
He doesn't know! How is he supposed to—stop. Breathe. Think. Do they send Not-Nebula up to General Ross and let him imprison her on the Raft? They're supposed to when they apprehend unfriendlies under law of the Accords, but Steve...doesn't...Not-Nebula is the only person who will know where Nebula is, and Steve refuses to leave her in the wrong time wherever she's been stuffed.
They're violating dozens of laws in the Accords already, anyway, just by trying to fix this via gathering the Infinity Stones, so does it really matter?
This is getting much more complicated than a simple point A to point B problem. Steve doesn't even know when they veered from the straight line. Directions. The Avengers are looking at him for directions and he needs to give them.
He forces himself from his stupor, "Hawkeye, Iron Man, War Machine, and Rocket, take her to a holding cell—" they don't even have one in Avengers Compound, they didn't in Avengers Tower either. They had S.H.I.E.L.D. with the Tower, and the U.S.'s Government since. This is their headquarters, but it's still their home, "—Me, Bruce, Scott, and Thor will—" Steve stops as he realizes that Thor didn't join them in the mad scramble off the platform.
He flicks his gaze back and sees that Thor is still on the platform beside Loki.
"—We'll stay back here and get the Stones ready to return the Vanished." Steve finishes after a second.
The Avengers nod, and Bruce backs up, taking Loki's scepter as Rhodey hands it to him before helping Clint grab Not-Nebula and drag her to her feet. Her expression is furious and something raw, but Tony lifts his weapons up, and beyond a little tilt up of her head, she doesn't say anything.
The four march her from the room. Steve knows that Tony will find some place to stick her until they can get this resolved. In the meantime…Steve closes his eyes for a brief second, trying to gather himself together. One problem maybe solved, who knows how many more to go. He doesn't even know where half the Infinity Stones ended up in the scramble.
He does know that they're still here. His senses are still heightened and a numbed. Steve rubs at the headache forming and opens his eyes, seeing Scott staring at him, his expression strangely confused. Maybe concerned, Steve's too tired to parse.
Bruce grips at the scepter tighter before he and Steve share a look. Steve gathers up the jumbled mess of his thoughts and shoves it to the side to focus on later. Now's not the time, nor the place. "Ant-Man, starting finding the Infinity Stones."
Scott nods and moves away from Steve, possibly to try and find the Soul Stone. He's pretty sure that it got thrown off the platform when Clint was thrown by Loki.
And—great.
Loki.
Steve didn't even—that's still a problem that he doesn't know how to approach. It's not ken, not exactly, but it's pretty close. Steve climbs onto the platform again and spots the Time Stone sitting in the middle innocently. It whispers towards him, mutters that Steve can't understand and it sounds more like a quiet susurrate.
He shakes his head to ignore it, and moves towards where Thor and Loki are.
Loki's face has lost color, giving him a cadaverous waxy look, and without Thor's hand pressed against his upper back, Steve has his doubts that Loki would be sitting upright. Steve's tongue tangles against the roof of mouth. Rocket shot Loki with one of those weird-lazer-like-guns. It had completely slipped Steve's mind, but it shouldn't have.
There's so much blood.
Loki's fingers are drenched in it as he presses against the shoulder, and Thor's aren't looking much better.
Loki's eyes are pinched shut, and Thor's mouth is rapidly moving, but Steve can't hear a sound actually leaving his throat. As Steve steps closer, Thor's catches his eye desperately. He's mouthing something and it takes Steve a second to figure out what it is:
Help. Please. Help. Please. Please help.
This finally Steve snaps into attention. "Bruce!" He yells, and kneels down next to Loki, pulling the Asgardian's hands away from the wound. Loki's face twitches, and Thor grips the hand, tugging it away before Loki can attempt to touch the wound again.
Steve can't easily remove clothing to see it—Loki's wearing shoulder pads—but what he can spot isn't good. The blast went clean through Loki's left shoulder, likely hitting some artery or another and Steve's pretty sure that the only reason Loki isn't dead yet is because of Asgardian biology. Their hearts work differently than Earth's.
"Bruce!" Steve calls again, looking up at Thor. "We need to apply pressure, do you have anything we can use to help it clot?"
Thor's expression is helpless. Steve's gaze lingers a little longer than normal when he realizes that Thor still hasn't said anything. Shock, maybe? But that doesn't make much sense because he knows that Thor has seen battle wounds before. He's dressed plenty of Steve's. It's weird for him to be this quiet, anyway, so is something—
Bleeding wound, remember?
Bruce kneels down next to him, lips thinned before he swears under his breath. "Lay him down," Bruce directs, taking off his lab coat and bunching it. Thor starts to tilt Loki down, and Loki makes a noise in the back of his throat, his eyes snapping open.
Bruce pushes the coat against the wound, and Loki's right hand jerks up in pain, his left only twitching a little. Steve takes some relief in the sight. That means that Loki's hand, for now, isn't paralyzed.
"Thor," Loki gasps, and Thor grips Loki's right hand tighter.
Bruce looks back at him, "Keep pushing at this, we need to sterilize it stat. I grabbed some equipment before you guys left, push as I go grab that. FRIDAY, what are his vitals?"
He trades positions with Bruce, and his teammate scrambles off behind him to accomplish his task. "Temperature of 38.9 Celsius, BMP is...a mess, I'm not getting an average, his fingers are broken and he has six rib fractures." FRIDAY answers, "He's losing blood fast, Dr. Banner, the wound closed itself at the back from the heat, but the subclavian was hit."
Bruce swears again. Steve pauses a little, but resists the urge to draw back at answer and sees Thor's eyes briefly close from the corner of his eye.
"The ribs—is it coastal cartilage or vertebrosternal/false?" Bruce questions. Steve's not really sure what the difference is, but it seems significant.
"Coastal and vertebrosternal," FRIDAY avers.
"What's going on?" Scott questions, and Steve nearly jumps at the voice behind him. Scott. Scott is here. Honestly, he'd forgotten that the man was in the room. Steve twists to see him standing there, eyes lingering on Loki as his eyebrows meet.
Loki makes a little noise in the back of his throat, and Thor rubs at the back of Loki's palm.
"Loki was shot," Steve answers, his voice sounds more irritated than he meant it to.
Scott's eyes widen a little, "Oh, yeah, that did happen."
Steve abruptly becomes aware that Loki's eyes are lingering on him, and tries not to fidget. He pushes against the wound harder, and hears Bruce drop items next to them, stuffing something into Scott's hands, "Open that."
Loki's breaths are hisses and Steve can see any remaining color being drawn from his face. He's going into shock. Steve mentally curses, and looks back at Bruce, "He's going into shock," he calls.
Bruce scrambles forward and presses his hands against Loki's neck, his lips thinning as he reads the pulse. "Thor," he addresses, and the Asgardian lifts his head up, "talk to him, he's panicking and—Steve keep applying pressure. Lang, give me the water bottle."
Thor remains quiet, and Steve looks up at him, "Thor, this isn't a time for games."
Thor's mouth opens and he flicks his tongue several times, but there's still no sound. Steve's brow furrows with confusion. Did something happen when Thor went to get Loki? He was feet away from Thanos, and there is the possibility that…
Bruce releases a sharp breath, apparently catching onto the same thing he did, "Lang, get down here. Talk to him."
"Me?" Scott repeats, voice raising a pitch, "But I'm—"
"Scott." Bruce's voice is void of humor. He flicks a hand as he cuts open a package of something. Scott moves forward slowly and squats down next to Loki's head.
"I'm...I really don't know what to say. I feel stupid," Scott runs a hand through his hair groaning, "fine, okay. Um, hi, you probably don't know who I am, but I'm Ant-Man. Actually, you probably don't know who that is either. I'm Scott, I was in prison when you invaded New York. I saw it on TV." Scott's expression flickers with embarrassment, "I don't know why I said that."
"Hmm. I'm...it...it..." Loki trails, and doesn't finish the thought out loud.
Encouraged, Scott begins to ramble anything that comes to his mind, mentioning twice that he's hungry before Bruce taps Steve's forearm, and Steve draws back pressure on the wound. Bruce pulls up the edge a little, and his lips tip down. He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "It's clotted a little, I need to put in the stitches, Thor, help me remove the armor so I can—"
Loki's bloody left hand wraps around Bruce's forearm, and Steve's hands fist drawing up towards his chest in surprise. "Touch me again and...and I'll take that-the finger," Loki's squinting and looks dizzy. Blood loss, likely. What does Bruce plan to do about that? They don't have Loki's blood on hand. Can Thor donate? He knows that they're adopted siblings, but they're both Asgardian.
Thor grips Loki's other hand, and his younger sibling's head tilts towards him.
"Loki," Bruce's voice is calm and he isn't trying to writhe from the grip like Steve knows he would be. "We're trying to help you. You need to let me look at it."
Loki laughs a little, but it's brittle, "I have my doubts."
"Why? Dude, we could have let you bleed out," Scott points out. Did he seriously just call Loki "dude"?
Loki blinks several times, and Steve realizes that the hand gripping Bruce's forearm is shaking a little. "You're working with her." Loki whispers, not seeming entirely present.
Steve grabs at the opportunity, "You know Nebula?"
Loki slowly sits up, and Thor catches him when he slips backwards. He's still gripping Bruce's arm. "I really wouldn't recommend that," Bruce warns, "you're not going to recover from this nearly as fast as you're thinking."
Loki ignores him entirely, turning to his brother visibly agitated, "Thor, what on Helheim—?"
Thor shakes his head, squeezing his eyes shut, but doesn't say anything. Loki's brow furrows a little, and Steve tries not to show how much this is unnerving him. What is wrong with Thor's voice? Did something happen? He was speaking fine before they left.
Steve shares a look with Bruce.
"Loki," Bruce calls gently, trying to garner the Asgardian's attention. Loki flinches releasing the scientist's hand. Bruce looks so calm and Steve doesn't understand how he can be. Steve wants to yell and throw something, but he's not a child anymore. "The wound isn't going to sterilize itself."
Steve's really not sure why they're pushing for this so hard. If Loki bleeds out, doesn't that solve one of their problems. He instantly gives himself a swift, hard mental kick. (Loki is Thor's brother. They aren't doing this for Loki, they're doing it for Thor). Loki shakes his head, and shifts away from them, "No, it will be fine. Stop fretting, I'll clean it myself. If you'll excuse me, my brother and I, I think, need to have a chat."
Thor can't talk. How does Loki expect to hold a conversation?
"I..." Steve starts to protest, but Thor catches his eye. He gives a slight shake of his head and slowly gets to his feet, helping Loki to his. Every pragmatic part of his brain demands that he drag Loki back to the floor so Bruce can clean the wound and stitch it, but he doesn't want to fight Thor. Scott makes a little noise, but Bruce's expression is blank.
His hands are clenched with frustration, though.
Everything still feels numb and dulled. He can't think straight anymore. Curse those stupid Stones. It's like being in the Helicarrier again with the scepter and the agitation that spiked his sense making stupid things fall from his mouth. Thor and Loki have already moved towards the edge of the platform when Steve manages to gather some of his sense together properly.
None of them, though Steve knows they should have, put up much of a fight as Thor and Loki hobble from the garage-turned-time-travel-center.
Steve manages to make it about five more seconds before the numbness to his senses and the desperate grasp of the Infinity Stones crying for him causes his stomach to heave. He pitches forward onto his hands and knees, and then promptly vomits.
Author's Note: There we go, plot veered from canon now, haha. Honestly, guys, though, I personally do not bare a great amount of love for fix-its that literally portray the same movie (even though I hardly read fix-its), but another character is present. I want to keep the basics from Endgame, but the way they go about accomplishing things is going to be different, hopefully everyone's cool with that. :)
Okay, note about the Infinity Stones: I know that people in canon have held and interacted with Infinity Stones without much trouble, but I really think that that's almost...silly, I guess. Someone gets incinerated in Guardians of the Galaxy for touching one. In the first Avengers, the Mind Stone messes with everyone's heads by simply being in the room. Anyone who used the Time Stone in Dr. Strange went a little crazy (at least, that's what I'm pretty sure that Wong was implying), and there's a dozen more instances I could point out. I really think that being in the same room as one would be really disorienting, but being present with five? (They still don't have the Aether, yet) I'm pretty sure that it's going to mess with the senses: ergo: Steve throwing up. Anyway, haha, that's my two cents on that.
Next chapter: May 17, or May 24th, possibly sometime in between. Until then, I love you all! Hugs! =D
