Summary: As the battle reaches its pinnacle, Jane finds herself threatened by Loki once more. Thor's worst nightmare has come true and he must make a choice between the brother he knew and the woman he loves.
AN: Just an update about why this came so late- I broke my hand during volleyball, so my typing speed was down to about nil. Also, I've been doing lots of writing for college/uni assignments so my motivation to even look at a word document was also down to nil. Next chapter is almost done, and the epilogue was almost completely finished minus a couple words here and there, but in transferring documents to my laptop something got messed up in the file and I lost the whole thing. I yelled about it for a while. Anyway, I've got the general idea in my head, so that should come a bit sooner.
Whatever Fury had said to those military guys sure had worked.
They gave her the smallest pair of fatigue pants they had at their disposal, a pair of military boots that were a size too big, and a National Guard shirt. She also found herself with an armed escort of five soldiers and a bulletproof vest (although she was nearly certain they wouldn't protect her from anything the Chitauri had in their arsenals). The only female soldier among them handed Jane a hair tie, and Jane threw her hair back into a ponytail. She felt as ready as she could in this situation.
They loaded Jane into the humvee, and started towards the bridge that would take them into Manhattan.
"We need to get to Stark Tower," Jane explained to the driver, who sat directly to her left. "The arc reactor the building runs on is the only thing that could generate enough energy to start the reaction."
The small name patch on the driver's uniform read 'Beltre.' "We'll get as close as we can, but there will probably be debris as well as abandoned cars blocking the road so we'll have to go by foot for part of the way," Beltre replied. "You're a civilian; well, a civilian with very high military connections, but still a civilian, so you are going to need to stay by at least one of us at all times. Okay?"
"Yeah, I got it," Jane replied bleakly, the view out of the windshield of the humvee not inspiring any sort of confidence in her. Maneuvering the bulky vehicle through abandoned vehicles and citizens who were straggler evacuees on the bridge was not a fun experience. Guilt rang through her conscience, loud and persistent.
Beltre's voice reached her again, pulling her from her fog. "Also, you need to do whatever we tell you to do, got that? We've been told you are a high-priority target, and that means we protect you at all costs. If we tell you to get on the ground, you drop like a rock. We tell you to run, you do it like you're on fire."
Protect you at all costs. More people might die because of her. And they all look so young. Beltre couldn't have been more than thirty. Jane nodded silently, not trusting her voice at the moment.
It wasn't until they were off the bridge that the bodies started. At first, it didn't occur to Jane that they were dead. When she saw them lying on the ground, all she saw was the blood and twisted limbs. She grabbed Beltre's shoulder urgently, "These people need help; they're injured!"
Sympathy passed over his features, but it was Velasquez, the one who'd given Jane the ponytail holder, who informed her, "Those people aren't injured, Doc."
"Then why are they-"
And then she really saw all the bodies. The bent and twisted limbs weren't just simple arms and legs, they were necks and torsos and sometimes limbs were simply gone. There was blood, so much blood but it was in the gallons and nothing that could be recovered from. "Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh my god." She felt the overwhelming urge to throw up. In fact, she was pretty sure she was going to. "I did this."
It cut her deep when no one in the vehicle responded to the contrary. If she'd been thinking logically, she would've known that they had no idea why she'd said that, what the surrounding circumstances of her involvement here were. But to her emotion addled mind, it sounded like condemnation.
Scrabbling at the window, Jane barely managed to open it and stick her head outside before throwing up.
After the roaring in her ears had quieted, she rested a cheek on the window frame and tried to even out her breathing.
Pull yourself together, Foster. You need to fix this.
Allowing herself no more self-pity, Jane moved herself back into the humvee, closing the sliding window behind her. No one said anything about her break down, and she was grateful for it.
They were now in downtown Manhattan, and there was no possible route around the cars blocking the way. The closer they'd gotten to the city, the stronger the earth-shaking tremors had felt, and now, essentially in the middle of battle, violent shocks from the Chitauri weapons would intermittently shake the ground, vibrating the concrete beneath her heels like a sonic pulse.
"We go on foot from here," Beltre announced. He then gave some instructions to the other soldiers about weapons and formations that Jane only vaguely heard.
They were a few blocks out from Stark Tower, and Jane wished fervently that she firmly believed in some deity she could pray to. She didn't even know any prayers to say. She thought one went Hail Mary, who art in heaven. She didn't remember anything after that, so she repeated those words over and over again in her head as the team exited the humvee.
It was her and five soldiers against the Chitauri. "Let's go save the world," she said.
The Chitauri aircraft whined above their heads, and Jane nearly leaped out of her skin when one of the weapons struck near them, sending a spray of concrete bits and dust into the air. The heat was oppressive, pushing into her throat. She coughed, hearing Beltre giving the soldiers the command to pick up the pace.
They were near the base of the tower when there was suddenly a barrage of fire from above. Jane felt the pressing heat of the alien weapons, and heard the sudden shouts of the Guardsmen in tandem with the explosions.
There was roaring in her ears of the fire from the Chitauri, and then the Guardsmen returning fire, and Jane tried not to just freeze, but she didn't know what else she could do. Thankfully, Velasquez grabbed Jane's arm, pulling her toward what looked like some rubble that would afford her cover. Just shy of throwing the small scientist in that direction, Velasquez let go, and yelled, "Stay there until one of us comes to get you!"
Not thinking and barely breathing, Jane took off running for the large pieces of concrete and twisted steel. The cover wasn't great but it gave her room enough to get her act together. She tried to get her breathing back, thinking about each one and trying to regulate the pattern. Fourteen breaths later, Jane risked a look back to where she left the soldiers.
To her relief they all still stood, looking a bit worse for wear, but still standing none-the-less.
Her escorts had told her to not leave their protection, but she could see the top, she could see into outer space, she could see all the Chitauri waiting to descend. She had to act.
When the firing quieted somewhat, Jane got to her feet and began running for the doors. She thought she heard the shouts of the Guardsmen in her ears, calling after her, but she could barely hear anything besides her own heartbeat and breath. Steps away from the doors, she saw something amongst the rubble that brought her to a standstill so fast she nearly slipped on the gravel that coated the ground.
Loki's scepter.
There was a brief lull in the fighting near where Natasha finally paused in her whirlwind to take a breath with the Captain at the end of the Chitauri gun.
"Cap, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."
"Thor said it wasn't possible without Loki's scepter, and our biggest gun couldn't touch it."
She knew he was right, but her mind raced for a solution. Loki kidnapped Jane Foster, one of the most brilliant scientists SHIELD had in its employ. If science caused this, then maybe science could fix it, with or without the magical spear. "Maybe it's not about guns."
Jane made for the entrance to Stark Tower with the scepter in hand. The glass doors were completely blown out, so Jane merely stepped through the frame of the door, glass crunching beneath her boots.
The building lobby looked mostly untouched, save for the shattered glass that seemed to cover every inch of the floor. The smell of smoke and blood clouded the air, though, drifting through the now-open windows and doors.
Her eyes flashed around the room, searching. She found what she was looking for- an elevator. She didn't think she had the fitness level required to run up hundreds of flights of stairs, so she hoped this elevator worked.
She slammed a palm down on the button, encouraged by the up arrow illuminating, and repeating the action as if it would help hasten the arrival until the doors opened.
She stepped in, hitting the close doors button. The metal doors slid closed, and the sounds of battle were dampened so much that Jane could barely hear them. After taking a moment to collect herself, the quiet affording her mind the opportunity to relax if only for a few seconds, Jane pressed the button for the topmost floor.
"Apologies, but a special access code is required for this floor," came a disembodied British voice than literally made Jane yelp in shock.
"What the hell?"
She only marginally prepared for the voice to respond. She still jumped a little when it did. "A special access code is required for this floor. If you are not in possession of this code, you will be unable to access the upper floors of Stark Tower."
"Can't you take me as close as you can and then let me take the stairs the rest of the way?" Jane found herself asking. She figured Stark must have some sort of AI; she'd heard enough about it to come to the conclusion, anyway.
"There are coded doors protecting the upper levels from disturbance. The same access code is required to gain entry through the stairways. Would you like to input your access code?"
Jane's mind raced. She may be a genius, but she hadn't the foggiest idea of how to suss out what sort of access code Stark might use. She threw out on a guess, "I- I am Iron Man?"
There was a long pause, long enough for Jane to hope that she'd guessed correctly, dread that she'd gotten it incorrect and the AI was programmed to trap her in the elevator, and despair that the damage to Stark Tower had finally gotten to the AI and it had failed.
Soon though, the voice was back. "Voice print recognized: Doctor Jane Foster. I am so sorry for the inconvenience, Doctor. I am afraid my primary systems are not running as optimally as they could, as they are currently being utilized by Mr. Stark, thus your voice print took longer to be analyzed."
Well, she wasn't expecting that one. "Um, th-that's okay." She was only mildly concerned with how/why Stark has her voice print registered in his building. Also, why was she accepting an apology from the AI?
"You have unrestricted access. Would you like the top floor as you previously requested?"
"Yes, as close to the roof as I can get."
"Of course."
Jane stepped out of the elevator, and switched the scepter to the other hand, wiping her damp palm against her pants. She found herself in a trashed living space. The windows were shattered, and the remains of what was once a balcony hung off the building in tattered metal beams and cables that twisted in the wind. The scraps of whatever that was littering the floor was probably furniture at some point. She was startled again when she heard a moan coming from the wrecked floor. Oh my god, is there someone in all that? Knowing that she should head for the roof at all costs, but just wanting to know that she could maybe save this one person from ending up a mangled body like all the rest.
"Hey," she called, jogging over to the wreckage, "Hey are you-" The breath was sucked from her lungs when she saw Loki rising from the body-sized craters in the floor.
You are mine, my little pet.
She gasped, stumbling backwards, words she didn't remember hearing slamming into her like a truck. "No," she breathed quietly.
Her fear seized her so firmly, her muscles locked no matter how much she screamed at herself to move. Phantom fingers on her body stilled her movement, the memory of the cold fog over her brain and the ice in her eyes trapping her in the moment.
Loki moved slowly and obviously in pain, and Jane's fear diminished slightly. He couldn't hurt her. Not when she could now fight back. She'd see how well Loki dealt with a fully-functional Jane Foster. She wouldn't go quietly. Not like before. She would die before she let that happen again.
She moved to grasp the scepter in both hands, not sure how to use it as a weapon but she'd be damned if she didn't try.
"My faithful pet has returned," Loki hissed, still mostly in the hole and facing away from her, and she was startled out of her reverie. His laugh was much weaker than normal, but it was still enough to send a chill down her spine.
Instead of responding, Jane gripped the scepter tighter. If she didn't get to the roof soon, the rest of the Chitauri army would descend, and as much as she had faith in Thor and his friends, they would be overrun. The human race wasn't equipped yet to deal with an alien invasion. It was up to Jane.
What would Thor do? Certainly not stand here scared, Jane knew. He was a man of action, and even though Jane knew they were different, she could take a page out of his book to save the world.
Getting a grip on herself, despite the ghosts of cold memories and muffled terror, Jane strode purposefully up to Loki. She moved her hands to the base of the scepter. Simple physics. Class one lever. Force applied, or a, to one side of the fulcrum, and the output, or b, on the other. The distance a from the fulcrum to the point A where the input force is applied is greater than the distance b from fulcrum to the point B where the output force is applied, then the lever amplifies the input force.
Judging by the damage to the floor, she didn't know how much damage she'd do, but she couldn't just let him go. Her fear, at some point, had turned into rage. He'd used her. Used her science to make a wormhole to enslave humanity.
Fuck her non-violent tendencies. Jane Foster wanted some revenge, and she was going to get it.
"I am not your pet," she spat angrily.
Adding to her force, she took a few running steps, and in a Happy Gilmore-fashion swung the bladed end of the scepter at Loki's head.
The blade cracked against Loki's skull like a gunshot, and an unexpected blast of blue light shot out from the blue crystal embedded in the blade. The blast hit Loki's head after the blade did, and the blue energy exploded outwards, just like the overloading Tesseract had done; it hurled his body away from Jane, crashing to the floor again across the room.
The surprise side-effect of her attack threw Jane backwards just as far. She grunted on impact and felt glass being crushed beneath her kevlar vest.
She tried to sit up as quickly as she was able without putting her hands down onto the glass-littered floor, blinking away the grogginess, not wanting Loki to overtake her easily if he was still able to. She quickly determined that he was likely down for the count, at least for now- the back of his head looked badly burned, and the blade had actually done some damage, and she saw one wide gash along his skull. His body was relaxed, his limbs flung akimbo in a manner that told her he was probably unconscious. Or at least the Asgardian version of unconscious.
Finding her voice again was more of a challenge than she thought, and she barely managed to grind out, "Where are the stairs?" Jane hoped the AI had heard her.
It had, and the AI's calm British voice guided her away from the living space, and a nondescript door led to an industrial stairway with only two flights of stairs, leading to what looked like a trapdoor to the roof.
She pushed it upwards, the sun burning her eyes for a moment before they adjusted. She crawled out onto the graveled roof and came face-to-face with her machine in motion.
Unable to stop herself, she breathed an awed, "Hello, beautiful." Pure science would be marveling at the thing in front of her. She made a damn wormhole. Compressed two points in space into one. She was brilliant.
But while she was brilliant, she had humanity. She had a conscience now, and her beautiful creation made her sick.
She opened the laptop that served as the control panel, and dropped the scepter to her feet so that she could enter commands with both hands.
In the midst of her typing, she was pulled away, by the sound of something hitting the rooftop behind her. She whirled around, reaching down for the scepter as a weapon.
She had only seen Natasha Romanoff a few times under her employ, but most of her experience with the SHIELD spy had come from stories through Hawkeye. As much as she could gather from what she'd been told, the Black Widow was one badass warrior lady.
If the smooth tumble that she did after diving off the Chitauri craft was any indication, Barton hadn't been exaggerating.
Jane relaxed her stance, knowing that she had an ally now on the roof. "Doctor Foster!" called out Natasha.
"I can power down the portal! I need another set of hands," Jane yelled over the cacophany.
"I heard," Romanoff said, far calmer than Jane at the moment, "Tell me what to do."
"Take Loki's scepter. On my mark, place it right at the crown."
Jane's fingers flew like mad across the keyboard, preparing her device for shutdown as quickly as she could.
She was startled from her work once more by a pained grunt from Natasha, and Jane saw the spy fly across the rooftop, rolling to a stop precariously close to the edge of the building.
"Oh, my dear, I'm afraid you just make this too easy."
Jane whirled from her machine in time to see Loki's wicked smile spreading across his face. The skin of his forehead and the side of his face was cracked, bloody, and blackened from the blow she'd bestowed on him earlier.
He looked like he was about to say more, but the Black Widow leapt onto his back, her lithe form moving with inhuman speed. She used the staff as a gag, yanking back with such strength that even the God of Mischief stumbled a bit under its force.
Her eyes burned darkly with revenge.
Jane was about to turn back to the computer and continue the shutdown sequence, leaving Agent Romanoff to handle Loki. She should've known better- Loki wasn't held in place for very long. One of his hands reached back, grabbing Natasha by the throat and dragging her forward, over his shoulder, and slamming her violently into the ground.
Jane flinched, her fear beginning to spike once more.
The scepter flew out of the Widow's hands, skittering only a few inches in Jane's direction. Loki bent down and took the scepter in hand, and then placed the blade at Agent Romanoff's throat. He took a knee, leaning closer to her with his face a few inches from hers. "You puny mortals think yourselves above me? You playact gods, your fragile existences crumbling around the thought of so much power. You will never win," he hissed.
"You're just sore because you got tricked by a puny mortal," Natasha replied, more than a little smugness in her tone. Jane was shocked she was able to respond at all, considering the massive blow Loki had delivered. "Look at you, high and mighty 'Trickster God.' Manipulated by a simple human because he wants to have a pissing contest-" Loki cut her off, wrapping a hand around her throat. Natasha made a choked noise, hands rising to try to pry the stranglehold off.
"I could end your life within an instant and it wouldn't even take much of an effort," Loki growled.
Romanoff was unable to respond as Loki stood, still gripping her by the throat and raising her up so that her feet no longer touched the roof.
Despite the position, Jane saw nothing but defiance and courage in Natasha's eyes. She kept glancing over in Jane's direction, probably more worried about Jane's safety than her own. This woman didn't fear death. In fact, she'd probably welcome it with open arms.
Jane didn't want that to happen. Enough people had died today. Enough had died because of her actions.
"Stop!" she shouted. "Just stop!"
Loki only turned his head to grin at her. "Oh, my pet, you say that as though it has some sway over me."
"If you don't let go of her in the next five seconds, I will shut the portal down," Jane said with as much conviction as she could manage. For effect, she held a hand threateningly over the keyboard. "One more command and the rest of your army is cut off."
She thought he bought it for roughly two seconds before he laughed. "If you had done such a thing, you'd have activated it long before now. You think that your mind was strong enough to overcome my magic? If I thought mortals had delusions of grandeur before-"
Jane heard the metallic, thunderous hum before she saw its source. Mjolnir flew through the air from behind her, before smashing into Loki's torso. He released the Black Widow, and she collapsed to her knees (Jane realized that had been Widow's plan. Distract Loki until Thor arrived to assist. Once again, Loki had been bested by a human and Jane couldn't keep the malicious satisfaction from flooding through her.) Agent Romanoff, while her actions were calculated, was obviously trying to keep herself together. If the deep breaths she was taking told Jane anything, the spy hadn't been too far from passing out due to lack of oxygen.
Loki wasn't quite knocked off the building, as he stopped his momentum by stabbing the blade of the scepter into the rooftop. Mjolnir was called back to the hand of Thor, who had touched down right beside her. He looked mostly physically okay, minus some cuts and blood, which Jane couldn't say wasn't a huge relief.
"I told you to stay safe," Thor told her quietly, not taking his eyes off his brother who was rising slowly. His tone wasn't quite angry, but it definitely held a note of contained rage.
"Well, I didn't listen," she responded shortly, deciding not to bother with the long explanation at the moment. "I had to do something."
Natasha had recovered by now, and came to stand next to Thor. "We need that scepter," she stated quietly. "Think we can take him?" The Widow's tone said that she already knew the answer to that question.
That tightly controlled rage seemed to unleash, and Jane could almost feel the electricity rising off of Thor. "Absolutely."
A sudden shower of Chitauri fire came down in front of Thor and Natasha, spraying gravel and concrete into the air. Thor kept Jane behind him, and she pressed her face into his cape, protecting herself from the flying debris. Agent Romanoff didn't take full cover behind the Asgardian, turning her back and letting her back and suit take the brunt of the hits from the shrapnel.
The firing let up soon, as several arrows as well as blasts from Iron Man nearly took out the entire squadron above them. Much to their chagrin, others were quick to fill their place.
"Thor, clear the skies over us. We can't have any noise distracting us," the Black Widow commanded.
Despite his usual position as the commander, Thor didn't fight her on the orders. "Can you handle my brother until I rejoin the fight?" he asked.
Natasha's look told Thor that was a stupid question. "I can hold him long enough." She turned back to Jane slightly whilst not taking her eyes off Loki, who appeared displeased by the poor aim of his army, "How long until the portal is prepped for shutdown?"
"Minutes," Jane answered, "Ten tops."
Thor headed for the side of the building, storm clouds gathering around them. "You brother's not immune to electricity, is he?" the Widow called out as she began her slow stalk towards the other Asgardian.
"No," Thor responded, lifting Mjolnir to the sky. Lighting shot both from the clouds and from Mjolnir, exploding the Chitauri crafts in magnificent plumes of fire; the smoldering remains fell to the streets below.
Jane caught the hint of a smile on Natasha's face before she turned fully from her. "Excellent." Her slow stalk became a sprint, as she and Loki charged at each other across the short space of the Stark Tower roof. Instead of leaping up as was the Widow's usual course of action and what Loki had evidently been expecting, she slid to the ground like she was playing baseball. As she slid past Loki's leg, she planted a fist into the side of his knee, and the crackling sound of something that sounded like a high-powered taser lit the air, and blue bolts of it ran through Loki's body from his knee.
Natasha wrapped an arm around his leg, the electricity not consuming her in return (probably a non-conductive polymer in her suit, Jane figured.) and Loki stumbled heavily.
It was at that moment that Jane realized she needed to be prepping the machine for shutdown. It was mostly up to the computer systems at this point, as she finally keyed in override: primary system
override command 616
Half a second later, COMMENCING EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN SEQUENCE flashed across the screen. A loading bar appeared at the bottom of the screen. Five minutes until it was prepped to shutdown. The Tesseract had been raised up from the energy amplification and shielding chamber, but the protection of the energy barrier would protect them from the massive amounts of radiation currently being emitted.
A pained grunt from Agent Romanoff reminded her of what was going on behind her. Thor was still clearing a good amount of the Chitauri in the vicinity of the tower, so the Black Widow was still on her own.
Agent Romanoff had been hurled across the roof, and slammed into some metal system unit. She stood quickly, if a bit wobbly. Loki was upon her soon, and the deadly dance the Widow engaged in was beautiful and terrifying. Watching humanity go toe-to-toe with a god and hold her own was something else, but every now and again, Loki would be too fast and too strong for the Widow to avoid the blow.
Each blow was punctuated by the sound of crunching bone.
Natasha managed to land a particularly vicious blow against the burned side of Loki's face, and the blue device around her wrist activated once more, sending a powerful shock of electricity through Loki's body. He stumbled backwards, and instead of following, Natasha retreated backwards.
Her face was bloody, bleeding from her mouth and from a wound on her forehead. She stood a few meters away from Loki, keeping herself between him and Jane, but she didn't stand completely upright. She was hunched to one side before bracing herself and straightening. Jane thought she heard a series of snaps that didn't sound at all healthy. "Ahhh-" Natasha moaned briefly, the sound catching in her throat as though it hurt. Her breathing sounding labored and scraping.
Loki chuckled darkly. He didn't appear to be very hurt by the Widow's assault, but he didn't appear completely unaffected. "You are an interesting opponent. Not worthy, by any means, but interesting. Your body seems more resilient than that of the average mortal. Perhaps more so than your darling Barton?"
"I can't say the same about-hm-someone who relies more on his words-ngh-than his fight," Natasha spat back, her words short and punctuated by loud, shallow breaths and pained noises. She drew one of her sidearms, emptying the clip right at Loki's head. Jane didn't know if it was magic or just Asgardian resilience, but the bullets bounced right off of him.
"And yet it appears I have won," Loki says after her gun falls silent, observing her state. Darting forward, he swept the Widow's feet out from under her, and it was a testament to how badly she was injured that the Widow didn't even try to evade his attack.
It was in that moment that Thor rejoined the fray. He slammed into Loki, but his dark brother pushed back with equal fervor. "You will never win so long as I draw breath," Thor growled, locked as he was with Loki.
"Then perhaps we shall remedy that," Loki replied, and a fierce battle commenced between the brothers once more.
Jane glanced back at the machine, seeing that only about thirty more seconds remained until it was fully ready for shutdown. She looked down to see Natasha dragging herself backwards towards Jane, one elbow pulling her across the graveled rooftop. "Oh god," Jane gasped, "Oh god, oh god. Agent Romanoff, I'm so sorry. What can I do?"
"Help me up," she ground out in reply, and she held out a hand. Jane grasped it and pulled, and to Jane's utter shock and horror, Natasha still managed to stand, uttering loud Russian curses the whole way. She wavered on her feet briefly, but she remained standing. Jane stood close to her side, making sure she didn't fall.
The computer beeped behind them. "Looks like we're ready," Jane said.
The fight between the brothers was closely matched, but Thor was clearly the stronger warrior of the two, and Loki was clearly more injured. One final blow with Mjolnir upon Loki's scepter drove him to his knees.
There was no mercy in Thor's eyes as one more time he brought the hammer forged in the heart of a dying star down upon Loki. The other Odinson fell, hitting the rooftop on his back.
Thor placed a foot on Loki's shoulder, and pressed down as he yanked the scepter from his grasp. The shoulder must have been injured and Loki cried out in pain as the scepter was pulled from him.
She thought she saw sadness and tortured love reflected in Thor's eyes before he laid Mjolnir on top of Loki. Setting aside the scepter, Jane saw him withdraw what looked like very intricate handcuffs, layered with different metals and seemed to have hundreds of different moving parts as they were locked around Loki's wrists.
The next item Thor pulled from parts unknown was something that looked like a collar, and very closely resembled the manacles. "I am so sorry, brother," Thor said, voice heavy with regret and acceptance.
"You are not my brother," were Loki's last words before the metal parted and molded itself to Loki's face, completely covering his mouth and silencing anything he'd been about to say.
Thor turned from Loki, leaving him bound and gagged, and picked up the scepter. He walked toward Jane and Natasha with the face of the warrior back in place.
Natasha stepped forward, inasmuch as she was able and took the scepter from him. "Make sure we-ugh-aren't interrupted," the Widow said.
Jane tried to place a hand on Thor's arm, a cold comfort in the middle of a war, but it was at least something. He didn't return the gesture, but he offered a tight-lipped smile in thanks.
"I can close it," she said as Thor turned from Jane to scan the skies for errant Chitauri dumb enough to try to stop them. Even without Mjolnir, he could do a lot of damage. "Can anybody-" a shaking breath "-copy? I can shut the portal down."
A few seconds later, Natasha swore again.
"What? What's the matter?" Jane asked worriedly. She'd done all she could for the situation at hand, and now she just had to wait. Waiting did not sit well with her. She wanted to do, to act, to help, and she couldn't.
"The goddamn World Security Council is-hm-sending in a nuke to blow the damn city."
And suddenly, Jane realized that she was well and truly going to die. She'd embraced the fact coming into the battle that her mortality would be a factor, and in doing this she might lose her life, but it was one thing to accept dying and another thing to face it head on.
"But- this is Manhattan. This is New York City! They can't do this!"
Agent Romanoff was silent for a few beats, "Stark is intercepting-ugh-the missile. He's going to-hm-shoot it right into space. Blow the Chitauri base-hm-straight to hell," she breathed, and there was a note of admiration in her voice. "That asshole. He's going to-hm-lay on the damn wire," Natasha said hotly, clearly referencing something Jane had no idea about.
Time seemed compressed into the span of a few seconds then-Iron Man shot up Stark Tower, nuke on his back, and into the blackness of outer space. Natasha held the scepter aloft, and all eyes were fixated on the portal opening.
The great flash of the nuclear explosion forced Jane to blink and look away, despite having wanted to see a nuclear blast in action since before she could remember. There wouldn't be a mushroom cloud, she knew. It would probably be spherical in nature, given the gravity variables in place. Everything raced through her mind at once, but at the forefront as she waited with bated breath was the absolute need to see the red suit of Tony Stark to appear once again. Even though she didn't know him personally, it suddenly seemed as though everything in her life hinged on him coming back through with his bravado and genius intact.
Jane then noticed the Chitauri falling out of the sky, a blue spark lighting in their bodies before they simply plummeted downwards. "Where is he?" she asked quietly, hating how small her voice was but unable to care too deeply about it.
"Come on, Stark," Jane heard Natasha murmur.
Jane saw the exact moment whoever was on the other side of Natasha's comm give the order to close the portal. Her face lost it's hopeful look, and she became terse and determined.
She didn't seem to be in much pain as she forced the scepter through the energy barrier, but Jane guessed she was good at hiding her pain. The moment the blade touched the crown, the energy shooting upwards halted. No explosions, implosions, or any fanfare. The stable shutdown was a success.
The window began to seal itself, the two points in space uncompressing.
Jane felt as though the breath had been knocked out of her. She'd just killed one last person- an extraordinary man by all accounts. And it was her fault.
The last of the blackness of Chitauri space vanished without further fanfare, but it left behind a small, red dot against the blue.
He had made it back.
Jane let out a short, startled, relieved laugh, not not at all full of mirth. He made it back.
"He's not slowing down," Thor then said urgently. Jane looked up, the small bubble of relief bursting in one fell swoop. "I can't-" Thor began in frustration. Mjolnir was still holding Loki down. He couldn't fly without Mjolnir.
"We can't lose anyone else today," Jane said, knowing that she was pleading and too far gone to care. "Thor-" She turned her pleading eyes to him, not knowing what she was asking for but asking all the same.
Free-falling, Tony was almost at the tops of the buildings. Thor would have to act fast. And then, just as he was stretching his hand to call Mjolnir away from Loki, a loud roar preceded a giant green blur grabbing Iron Man out of the sky.
The Hulk had saved him. Clinging to building sides regardless of the damage he was causing, the huge alter-ego of Bruce Banner roughly but effectively slowed the fall, and landed in a similar fashion of how Thor had landed with Jane.
Black Widow caught Thor's eye moments later. "You need to get down there. If-hm-Stark's trapped in a powerless suit, you're the-ugh-only one strong enough to get it off without accidentally-hm-ripping him to shreds."
Thor's eyes flicked towards Jane, concern and worry still written in them. She was touched by his concern, and wanted nothing more than for him to stay with her. But without hesitation, Jane pushed him towards the edge of the building. "Go. Your teammate needs you."
Thor called Mjolnir from Loki, who still made no moves to get up. Thor walked over to his brother, yanking him to his feet by the manacles securing him. "He is not entirely harmless. We must take pains to make sure he cannot get off this rooftop. Your machine is completely harmless now?" He asked Jane.
She nodded, and Thor moved to secure the manacles to the machine, "Tesseract's safe too, as long as he doesn't rip through the machine. Even then, that would take a while, judging by the strength he has-" Why would I know that? The specs of her machine were a no-brainer, but knowing Loki's average strength? Knowing how the adamantium and vibranium parts of the machine would hold up to it? She pushed the knowledge to the back of her mind, ceasing her wonderings about what other knowledge she had left over from her stint under Loki's control. "It's fine. Go."
Thor obviously knew how to bind his enemies without them escaping, as he managed to secure Loki to a small offshooting piece of adamantium, and then used Mjolnir to hammer it into place.
Thor then flew off, down towards where Steve and Hulk were gathered around Tony.
Agent Romanoff turned slowly to Jane. "Now, how the hell do we get off this building?"
They left Loki on the rooftop, ordering JARVIS to keep him locked up there no matter what, and to notify them if he made any attempts at escaping. Jane steadfastly refused to look at him. JARVIS got them back to the ground floor, and Jane kept stealing glances at the injured Natasha, who kept refusing Jane's offers of help (not that she would entirely know what to do; but she could help her walk or something. Anything to not feel so useless.)
She didn't appear to be too badly wounded, or going into shock from what she remembered from the few nursing classes she'd taken when she'd nearly let the naysayers persuade her from astrophysics. The Black Widow wasn't walking upright, hunched slightly to the side as she had been before, but this time she made no move to straighten herself. She had a slight limp, but that could be from the imbalance of weight because of the lean. Most of her body was a mystery, hidden as it was by her suit. One of her arms was curled into her torso, a natural reaction for an injury, but Jane thought she remembered hearing a snap from it earlier. Her face was battered, her mouth bloodied, and the bruising starting to show through in soft purples and reds that would be full-blown in a few hours. The bruising on her neck was already deep purple and darkening. Jane hoped none of the internal structures were damaged, but it was a weak hope. She noticed her white pallor, and worried about what that meant.
As they exited Stark Tower, Jane noticed Natasha's hands shivering slightly. "Are you okay?" Jane asked, again, and to no avail. Her fingers nervously played with the velcro of her kevlar vest.
Natasha didn't speak and just shot her a look that said to stop asking.
The pair made their way over to where Tony managed to stand up in his battered suit. The rest of the Avengers stood around him, including Hawkeye, whose eyes found them first.
Within the space of a second, Clint must have realized Natasha's condition was much more dire than Jane had thought. More guilt piled up as she realized how much the spy had been hiding from her. "Natasha!" yelled Clint, rushing to where Agent Romanoff had obviously lost the desire to move.
"Clint," she called out weakly, wheezing slightly. Her voice had deteriorated significantly since Jane had last heard it.
Barton ran to her side, and the other Avengers followed suit behind him, realizing that one of their team members was not okay. Barton arrived at her side just as she collapsed, her legs seemingly not wanting to function any more. Clint caught her, dropping to his knees without coming to a full stop first. "Hey, hey, you're okay," he assured her, eyes searching her body for wounds.
"I'm-" she wheezed, and blood spattered from her mouth, "not doing so well," she finished weakly.
Jane watched Hawkeye's face harden. "You're gonna be just fine. Remember Tunisia? So much worse than this," he said with a false air of joviality.
Natasha tried to laugh, but it ended in more weak, bloody wheezing. "I dragged you... out of there-" her voice dropped suddenly as she struggled to take in a breath. "Told you not-" she tried again, but failed soon after.
"Don't talk, Nat, okay? Just focus on breathing for me, yeah?" Hawkeye encouraged, still searching for injuries.
Natasha seemed oblivious to the rest of the world except for the man who held her down on the ground. She was pale and shaking, and Jane didn't know how she hid her injuries so well before. Probably waiting for that one last person she needed to see. Jane thought. Strong for all the wrong reasons, a voice sneered in her head. It sounded like Loki.
She was so past caring whether she was remembering things he said or if she had developed spontaneous schitzophrenia. She just wanted this to be over. She wanted Natasha to be okay. She wanted everyone to be okay. She wanted to go back and change everything, but she couldn't do that. She has to deal with the circumstances set before her, something her dad had always told her.
She was really and truly drifting if she was thinking about her father.
Natasha and Clint had begun to have a conversation in Russian, and Jane couldn't comprehend the words, but she could understand their meaning by their tones.
"Я думаю, что я собираюсь идти спать теперь," Natasha said sleepily.
Hawkeye replied fiercely, "Нет, вы не можете оставить меня."
Natasha's eyes were drooping dangerously low. "Hey, hey, hey," Clint said, his volume increasing, "Natasha, stay with us, come on." He looked at Steve, "We need a Med-evac, now."
Thor had been standing next to Jane, a protective hand on her shoulder. "It will not arrive fast enough," he said, hovering beside Jane for one last moment before gliding down next to the pair. Clint shifted a few inches away from Thor, not enough to truly keep Natasha from him, but enough to convey some manner of distrust. "We are shieldbrothers, Clint Barton," Thor said, low and calm, "We put our lives in each other's hands. Natasha is my shieldsister. I must do all I can to save her."
He didn't know if he could muster the magic again. He remembered the feeling well enough, but he knew there were limits on magic, and he didn't know if he had used all of his on Jane.
"Я не хочу, чтобы. Я хочу остаться," Natasha muttered sleepily. Her eyes were closed and no amount of shouting from Hawkeye prompted her to open them again.
"We are running out of time," Thor stated, voice now taking a sense of urgency. He would never do against his teammate's will, but he needed to at least try to make up for the damage Loki had done.
Clint only took another moment's pause before he carefully shifted Natasha off his lap, and sent a pleading look Thor's way. "Can you save her?"
Thor breathed out a sigh. "I will do my best."
He set aside his hammer, which had his own blood dripping down the handle. Natasha still lived- her breathing was shallow and her heartbeat fluttered like a young bird's wings, but she still lived. She was strong, anyone who could best his brother in manipulation and stand tall against him in combat despite being so outmatched would have to be.
He placed a hand on her forehead, reminding himself of the time before war and battle damaged him. When he was still as good and pure as the beautiful woman standing behind him. He thought of his strong feelings for Jane (love), his respect for the warrior Black Widow before him (admiration), and his deep appreciation for his newfound friends, the Avengers, who saved Midgard this day (gratitude). Her pushed all the darkness in him to the back of his mind, away from the golden light of the healing magic and the wonderful feelings that it fed off of.
It came easier this time, like a muscle that had been long forgotten, but now was discovered and enjoyed the flexing. He shuddered a little this time as the pull began. After all, a muscle long forgotten was bound to be sore after being worked again, and so much so in a single day.
He breathed through the discomfort, nothing compared to the pain of injuries he had endured in his life.
Thor knew it was working as he heard the shocked murmurs and awes of his teammates. He heard the snaps as all the broken bones went back into place. He felt as each wound closed, as each internal injury sealed.
It did not take long for her to be completely healed, her injuries not being as extensive as Jane's had been, yet no less life-threatening.
When it was finished, Thor took his hand from her, falling backwards a little as the connection was broken and his magic stopped flowing. He felt a little drained, moreso than before, but any discomfort, any pain, would've been worth the look in Clint Barton's face when Natasha awoke, asking why they were all standing around looking like a bunch of idiots. "We've all got work to do," she said as she sat up without difficulty.
Thor smiled as he watched Clint Barton embrace the Widow tightly and without remorse. She returned it, despite the eyes of their team around them. The moment felt intimate, and Thor almost felt as if he were intruding as he stepped back to where Jane waited. He took her hand in his, and he felt her lean into him.
The sanctity of the moment was lost though, when Tony said incredulously, "Well fuck me sideways and call me a porn star, Thunder Cats."
AN2: So, my beating up Natasha was because I thought it was weird that everyone came through that battle with nothing more than a few scrapes. Especially our two resident non-superpowered assassins.
AN3: And yes, in the United States women aren't allowed in direct combat so Velasquez technically shouldn't have been there but that law makes no fucking sense. We aren't fragile little creatures who will shy at the soonest opportunity and we do not deserve special treatment over men. If you didn't like it, cry me a goddamn river.
Chapter 11 Preview: In the aftermath of the battle, the Avengers eat shawarma, and Jane and Thor find some time to talk. However, Loki can only be held for so long, so Jane must prepare herself to lose Thor to his duty once more.
"Jane," Thor inquired gently, "are you well?" One of his hands tilted her gaze to meet his.
She smiled tiredly, still managing to feel touched and a bit awed that this man, this god, this hero, cared enough to ask about her well-being, to nearly carry her back to her room... and everything else. Yes, overwhelmed was another very good adjective to describe her at present. She nodded weakly, "Just... just tired."