Chapter 10:

Within the blink of an eye, they were all teenagers, the staff had fallen and shattered into thousands of pieces, everyone was staring around them in surprise. Except for Loki. He watched in horror as Verity fell, her eyes wide with fear, pain, and shock.

Two steps, and Loki was next to her. He placed his left hand behind her head, on the top of her neck, while holding her up by the waist with his right, kneeling down so that Verity was resting on his knee.

"Loki." Verity chocked, tears spilling down her face while she tried to hold her bulging belly. "Loki. It hurts."

"Shh." Loki whispered in a comforting voice, telling her, "Calm. You were never made to bear children at such a young age, and the sudden change of form has weakened you. If you do not rest..."

Verity stared up at him her amber eyes wide, while she whispered what he was going to say, "The child will die. But I can't rest. There is too much pain!"

Loki closed his eyes, breathing deeply, while placing his right hand on her left shoulder, reciting magic words through his head. For a few seconds, Loki kept his hand on her shoulder, before moving it to close Verity's unseeing eyes.

Then he gently placed her on the ground, before standing up and facing the avengers. Thor bowed his head slightly, Bruce was still a light green colour, Natasha had a few tears in her eyes, Clint had his back to him but was still watching the event over his shoulder, Steve stood very straight, staring into the distance.

"You killed her!" Tony shouted, launching himself into the air and onto Loki. Immediately, everyone was around the two battling teens, trying to get Tony off of Loki.

"GUYS!" Natasha shouted, getting everyone's attention. Obviously she had called out to them more than once. She was crouching beside Verity, two fingers on her neck.

"She's still alive. Just asleep." Natasha told them. Tony stared at Loki in surprise as he let go of the front of his clothes. Loki straightened up and brushed himself off, as if Tony was disgusting and didn't deserve to touch him, before saying, "I just put her into a deep sleep. That way she will be able to regain her energy."

Steve frowned, while Clint asked, "So... you don't want to kill her?"

Thor turned his head at Hawkeye, inquiring, "Why would my brother want to murder Lady Verity?"

"Because he's a maniac!" Tony shouted, pointing at Loki, who backed away a little. "There's no telling what he would do! Oh, and we don't have any way of getting back to our original forms, because the staff is broken!"

Now everyone remembered that Tony was right. They were stuck in this form.

Loki cleared his throat and said, "It will wear off." Everyone stared at him as he continued, "Since Verity is weak, and the staff is broken, we are now only in a temporary form."

"Brilliant!" Tony threw up his hands in mock celebration, before saying, "How long till it's gone?"

Everyone stared at Loki as he bit his top lip and muttered, "Three days."

Before anyone could say anything, Fury opened the door and dropped his cup of coffee as he saw the scene in front of him. Loki quickly ran to Verity's side, shielding her by holding her close to him.

"WHAT! THE! HELL?!" Fury shouted at the top of his voice, causing two other agents to run into the room.

Tony held up his hands to Fury, saying, "Look... I know this looks bad... but we can explain."

"First, Lady Verity must have a better resting place, other than the floor." Thor and Loki spoke at the same time. Loki was now standing with Verity in his arms. Everyone raised their eyebrows slightly at how gently he was holding her, as if she was water and that she could burst at any moment, going through his fingers.

Loki stared at them all hard, until Fury and Tony led the way to a medical room, with everyone following Loki.

***3 Hours Later***

"So you're saying, that Verity changed you all into teenagers and collapsed?!" Fury hissed out of the corner of his mouth, staring at the avengers, and Loki.

Tony was holding an ice bag on top of his head, having told Fury everything over and over again for the last three hours. Clint had fallen asleep in his chair a few hours before, while Natasha was trying to bang her head on the table. Bruce and Steve had been filling in parts of the story, while Thor was looking very guilty at Loki, who was chained into his chair with a mussel over his mouth.

His eyes were tired, and seemed to burn through everyone he looked at. At that moment, he was looking at Thor, was trying to put on an apologetic face.

Fury groaned and asked, "So Loki had nothing to do with turning the worlds mightiest heroes into teenagers?"

Steve shook his head, saying, "No. It was an accident, one that could have cost Verity her life."

Loki was now staring at Steve, who shifted uncomfortably in his chair, knowing that the god was staring at him with his deadly gaze that seemed to be able to wake the dead.

"Okay. So after Verity was put into a coma by Loki, what happened?" Fury asked, placing a hand over his forehead. Bruce cleared his throat and said, "Tony attacked Loki, because Tony thought he had killed Verity."

Loki tried to say something, and everyone turned to look at him, Tony asking, "What did he say?"

Thor frowned and guessed, "I think my brother was trying to say something about the staff." Natasha gasped (most unlike herself) as Loki nodded, telling everyone that's what he had said.

"We forgot about the staff!" Steve cried out, clapping a hand to his forehead. Fury frowned, asking in a deadly voice, "What about the staff?"

Everybody (except Clint) shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Tony swallowed and muttered, "It's broken."

Fury glared at him with his eye, saying, "You broke the staff?"

Everyone nodded, Clint giving a faint snore, Loki glaring at Tony as he pointed his finger at him and said, "It was Loki."

Again, Loki tried to speak, and again it was Thor who translated, "He said, 'Verity dropped the staff, which caused it to break.'" Steve raised his eyebrows and asked, "Didn't he say something else?"

Thor gave a small nod and said, "He did. But I dare not repeat what he said about the Man of Iron."

Tony's jaw dropped as he tried to think of a good reply, finally saying in a lame voice, "Oh yeah? Well... he's insane."

Natasha tried to hide a giggle, but Tony heard her and glared at her, trying his best to imitate Loki, which just made her giggle even more behind her hand.

Everybody raised their eyebrows at the girlish laughter coming out of her. Even Fury was looking at her with interest.

"Okay." Fury cleared his throat and turned back to Tony, continuing, "How long do you stay like this?"

Loki said something. Thor translated, "'Three days.'" Everyone nodded, and Tony was about to say something when a doctor came into the room and whispered something into Fury's ear.

"What is it?" Steve asked, as the man left. Fury's sighed and bent down, placing his hands on top of the table, saying, "Verity is..." He couldn't continue.

Loki's eyes widened as he understood what had happened and tried to stand up, but the chains kept him in place as he tried to shout. Everyone turned to Thor, whose eyes were very wide as he tried to decipher what his brother was shouting.

"Loki says that he must see Verity. He also says that she will die if she gives birth in this form." Thor told everyone. Everybody stood up, Natasha said, "Well, lets unchain him and take him to her room! Maybe he could delay it."

So everybody left the room, Loki near the front, leaving the sleeping Clint behind.