Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.
They gave Natasha an hour to get into place. It was too dangerous for her to rush her progress toward the spinx, and they did not want her to draw the attention of Laufey or any other lingering Frost Giants. When the hour passed, Loki took the arms of Sif and Clint, and teleported them to the base of Laufey's makeshift throne.
Laufey did not immediately stir when they appeared before him, only gradually leaned forward and placed his elbow on his knee and his chin on his fist. His smile was malicious, condescending as he peered down at them. ''Odin must have grown more foolish with age, to send so few against me.''
''He only sent as many was necessary,'' Sif replied. Loki shot a warning glance at her, to cool the temper that rivaled Thor. She ignored him, and her hand tensed on her weapon when Laufey stood from his throne.
Behind him, Natasha ghosted over the leg of the spinx and dropped into the seat that Laufey had vacated. There was a small set of steps that led up to an open doorway, and Natasha quickly disappeared inside the chest of the spinx.
''I prepared for many more,'' Laufey laughed.
''There are three of us, and only one of you,'' Clint growled, starting to pull an arrow from the quiver at his back.
''You are mistaken,'' Laufey said, his red eyes wide in mock surprise. They narrowed the next moment, and he spread his arms out to either side of himself.
The ground beneath their feet shook, and the ice all around them began to crack. What they had mistaken as walls and towers and pillars of ice broke and shattered and revealed the Frost Giants within. They shielded themselves from falling ice that cut like glass shards, as Frost Giant after Frost Giant moved to surround them.
Clint's eyes were wide as he pressed the button on his earpiece. ''Nat, get out of there!''
His warning came much too late. The next moment, a hoard of Frost Giants burst out of the doorway at the chest of the spinx that Natasha had disappeared inside, and moved to stand at Laufey's back.
One of them tossed something through the air, and to their horror it was Natasha's limp body that rolled to a stop at their feet.
''Natasha!'' Clint screamed, dropping to his knees to grasp the broken woman.
''Leave her,'' Sif growled, grabbing the back of his collar and lifting him to his feet. ''We have more pressing concerns.''
''Let your spilled blood serve as warning to the next Asgardians that come to face me. I am not to be underestimated,'' Laufey snarled, and with the wave of his hand, the battle begun. He sat back in his throne as the other Frost Giants rushed forward and engaged them.
Sif was quick with her blade, taking out each Frost Giant in turn, but it was not long before she grew wearied by the numbers she faced. Clint tried to make it to a high place, but found himself grounded and limited. His arrows were running short, and he was having trouble recovering them and resorted to using his bow itself as a weapon.
Loki slashed his way towards Laufey with his scepter, often using his projections to throw off the Frost Giants. When his arms tired of swinging the blade, he resorted the throwing the knives he kept hidden at his waist. They took out two or three Frost Giants at a time, and made quick work of the ones that still stood in his way of Laufey.
When he reached the base of Laufey's throne, the Frost Giant returned to his feet. He was twice Loki's size, and Loki was wearied in the face of him.
''Who are you to stand before me?'' Laufey demanded angrily.
''I am Loki Odinson, God of Mischief and prince of Asgard,'' he stated, and though his voice wavered slightly his words held bite. ''I have come to end you.''
''You have come to die, son of Odin,'' Laufey spat, and ice formed over his hand as sharp as a blade and he raised it to strike.
Loki was quick with a knife, breaking the ice and splattering Jotun blood over the ground between them. Laufey cried in outrage and pain, before swinging his other hand down and knocking Loki to the ground along with it.
With the wind knocked from his lungs Loki was slow to his feet, and Laufey advanced on him quickly. He barely blocked a blow with the shaft of his scepter, but he caught the second with the blade itself and sent Laufey reeling back. They went back and forth for a long time, nearly evenly matched, but when Loki took one too many slashes across his chest it tilted the fight in Laufey's favor.
Loki struggled to his hands and knees, sweating and gasping and panting from the fight, and looked up to Laufey looming above him. The ice was gone from one of his hands when he took Loki's arm and pulled him to his feet, and the other was poised and ready to deliver the final blow.
The grip on Loki's arm broke through the armor, and the coldness of the ice burned through the fabric there as well. Loki braced himself for the pain, and Laufey waited for it as well, but both were surprised when it never came.
They both looked down to his arm, to see the skin turned blue beneath Laufey's fingers. Laufey pulled his hand away in surprise, and the blue faded from Loki's arm and returned to its normal color. Their eyes met for a long moment, before a voice boomed in Loki's ear and broke their shared moment.
''Thor and his army failed to stop the Frost Giants at the North border. Everyone pull back and return to base.''
Loki ducked and rolled away from Laufey's deadly blow, and teleported back to where Clint and Sif were still fighting. They had heard Director Fury as well, and they ran towards him.
A Frost Giant at Clint's back knocked him from behind, and sent him crashing into the two Asgardians. They tumbled to the ground, and Loki cursed as he hurried to grab onto both of them. The Frost Giants started closing in, and his eyes searched frantically for their fallen comrade. He found her laying a few feet away, just out of reach, her fire red hair striking in contrast to the paleness of the ice and the paleness of her skin.
Loki cursed again as he reached for her, stretched for her. The others gripped at his arm, and Sif yelled at him to leave her. The Frost Giants reached them just as his fingers wrapped around hers, and he willed them all away.
Sif and Clint broke from Loki right away, after they landed roughly on the ground in the middle of the control room at headquarters. Agent Coulson and Agent Hill jumped back in surprise, and Director Fury let out a Midgardian curse that Loki did not understand.
Loki leaned up on his arms and pulled Natasha up with him. Her body lay limply across his own, her face tucked against his chest, and when he moved his hand to cradle her head he was surprised to find it wet. He pulled his hand away and it was stained with blood, as bright and red as her hair.
Director Fury saw and lifted her from Loki's arms the next moment. He rushed away with her, leaving Loki alone on the floor. He looked down at himself and found that everywhere Natasha's body had touched his there were smears and pools of blood.
Behind him, he could vaguely hear Clint yelling at Sif for suggesting they leave Natasha behind. He stood slowly, silently staring at the blood on his hands for a long time, before Agent Coulson took his arm and led him toward the infirmary to tend to his own wounds.
Of course, by the time they got there his wounds were nearly healed, so the Midgardian doctors had little to tend to. When they finished, he sought out Natasha, but when he found Director Fury again she was nowhere to be seen. His eyes ventured past Fury, though the window of the door he stood beside, and saw through a hoard of doctors her flame red hair against the stark white bed she laid upon.
The next moment a nurse pulled the blinds of the window shut, and Loki waited silently with Director Fury. As the hours passed, others came to wait with them, until the hall was completely filled. It seemed forever before the doctors finished and opened the door to stand before them. They all listened anxiously as Natasha's fate was revealed, their breaths held tightly in their throats.
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please keep reading, and review!