IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ
A/N In this chapter, there is a section that some may want to skip. There is a possibly-graphic description of an injury. Personally, it doesn't bother me, but it might for others. I have written a warning before it that tells you in a few words what happens, I won't say it before you get there, and a 'skip to here' sentence as well. These are in bold. (important bit over)
Also, I saw Ragnarok yesterday, and holy hel(a) it was the best. If you haven't watched it, do so. The first 10 minutes are a bit cringe, but it's still amazing. There are a few things that annoy me, but I won't say them here. No spoilers in this chapter for anything, though I will definitely be including some aspects later.
Tony's POV
I held my breath. I had no idea of what they'd planned, but even though Loki knew that it was Flare's life the leader was threatening, not mine, he was unconcerned. In fact, his smile grew, as did that of the illusion Flare, before disappearing altogether to what counted as a blank expression on a dragon.
I couldn't believe that the leader was actually holding our lives against them. It thought they would, what, surrender to save those who defeated Loki before?
But apparently it did. "Swear to shift to your normal forms and correctly secure these shackles on yourselves," it lifted a hand to its head, and one of the soldiers moved out of the army with two more sets of the shackles, identical to what Flare and Loki had come with. Every other Chitauri kept its gun trained on the dragons as it approached, and put the shackles on the ground a short distance away. Loki and illusion Flare grinned down at the lone soldier, exposing their teeth and making it scurry away again.
"Once our agreement is made, neither of you will harm anything or anyone, in any way, and will not speak."
The two dragons, without looking away from the leader, started conversing lowly in a strange, lilting language. They had possibly chosen to speak at that moment on purpose to be annoying, but were covering by seemingly discussing the terms. The leader glowered, but continued. "You will not resist when we bind you with the nets, nor try to avoid them."
The dragons smiled at this, but continued discussing at the end of its sentence. I was confused, as the leader had said they only had one left.
"Finally, you will not…"
Illusion-Flare interrupted, now in English. "There is no point going on, General. We know the terms. They are always the same kind of thing."
"Besides," Loki continued, "we have come to a decision."
The leader looked smug, and started to withdraw the knife from Fony's neck. The other Avengers were wide eyed, completely surprised, as I was, at what was happening. Then I thought a bit. What was the point of replacing me with Flare if they were going to do this? They had obviously predicted it.
"No," the dragons said together, and I gaped.
The leader hissed, and put the knife back. Fony spoke as he unsuccessfully struggled to get away. "Come on, Reindeer Games. You're gonna let them kill me when I haven't even been able to give you the drink I promis…"
"Silence, Hive-Slayer," the leader grated, and dug the knife in, making another deep cut. It also hit Fony in the head again, making him sag and eyes glass over for a second. Peter looked away from this and instead glanced at Loki and what he thought was Flare pleadingly, but Loki ignored him.
I made to step out of the circle, but felt a recognised pressure in my head.
'No! Stay there! I am acting, I am fine. This is the plan, trust me. Everything is going as we expected. Stay there or you will ruin it!'
I heard Flare's voice, and looked to Fony. He was glaring at me, while still pretending to weakly struggle. I hesitated. He obviously wasn't fine. The new cut was already close to life threatening, and the leader kept the knife close to the wound, ready to make it even deeper.
'Stay, Stark.'
I didn't want to, but I nodded, and then stopped moving. I wanted to help, somehow, but if he said it was under control, I'd listen. It washis life on the line right now.
"We will kill them! I will kill this one now, and the others next, if you do not comply!"
The dragons looked completely at ease with the situation, though Illusion-Flare glanced once at Fony, seemingly nervous though that made no sense, and her long, scaly tail was slithering slowly along the ground around her feet, somehow still making a swishing sound despite being incorporeal.
"Go ahead," Illusion-Flare announced.
The leader's eyes narrowed, then it stated confidently, "I say you are bluffing. Do not try to trick me, you will lose more than you bargained for."
Loki and Illusion-Flare raised their heads and looked down at the gathered army haughtily, then spoke together, "There isn't anything to lose. They mean nothing to us, and you are all fools if you thought they ever did."
*** (skip to next break if you don't want to read a description of what happens when someone's throat is cut) ***
Seemingly in slow-motion, the leader roared and sharply drew the knife across Fony's neck. Time returned to normal and blood spurted as a major artery was severed, staining the grass red. Peter had already been on the verge of tears, but with a strangled "NO! TONY!", water began flowing freely down his cheeks. The other Avengers were shocked, so much so that they couldn't make a sound.
Fony had started to yell in pain, but the sound never came since the trachea had already been severed. His eyes were shut tight for a second before blowing wide. Fony tried to take gasping breaths, but the air came through the gaping slit rather than his mouth, pulling blood in and making him gurgle then cough as he choked. Within seconds his legs went slack in unconsciousness, the awareness in his (…my…) brown eyes fading, before they fluttered shut. His chains clanged together with a faint chiming like bells, in direct contrast to the horror before me.
Held up only by the grasp of the leader and two other Chitauri, his heart continued to beat, draining his body until eventually there wouldn't be enough left to pump.
*** (skip to here) ***
It was weird, but most of all horrifying, watching myself die. That was supposed to be me bleeding out in front of my friends.
Loki had betrayed Flare. She was convinced there was a plan, and now she was dead. I hoped the Chitauri caught him, and made him suffer worse. Much worse.
Somehow, the circle around my feet didn't flicker, and I remained invisible. I had prepared to be seen as soon as the spell's caster died like in most stories and movies, but what did I know of magic? I didn't move, as I would surely have been killed if seen.
Loki tutted. "What a waste. We warned that threatening the Man of Iron would have no influence over us. Now you've lost some of your fresh meat." He gave a patronising smile, and in that moment, I imagined myself with strength enough to choke him, watch himpanic as he struggled to breathe. I shuddered as the image disappeared.
The leader raised its gauntlet now turned red with blood to its mouth and licked some off. I hadn't quite believed Nat when she accused the army of wanting to eat fleeing human civilians, but now? The thoughts were disturbing on so many levels.
The leader then released Fony's body, letting the two soldiers take him fully. It stalked over to the other Avengers, visibly angry, and instead held the knife to Thor, aiming for his heart. Its jaw was clenched, and it was breathing harder than before, but seemed to calm again once it had the knife in place. It flashed a glare filled with loathing at the dragons.
"The Man of Iron was a Terran, a human. Asgardians care nothing for them, though I thought you would have wanted to keep all the 'Avengers' alive. You have over a thousand years of love for the Crown Prince, however, and from the Mind we all know how many times you screamedfor Thor..." Loki cut him off with a loud snarl, eyes flashing dangerously and lowering his torso for an attack of potentially epic proportion. The Avengers, including myself, and some of the Chitauri flinched back, but the leader only smiled in satisfaction at the reaction its words had caused.
Illusion-Flare's tail raised from the ground and her lithe body twisted slightly so she could curl it in the air in front of Loki's chest, silently warning him not to advance and risk getting caught. Knowing that the real Flare was dead, I realised that Loki was probably acting and controlling the illusion to pretend the leader had actually struck a nerve. Why? Some of my own hatred faltered at that realisation.
Loki's black claws dug deep grooves into the ground as he restrained himself from moving toward the leader, but still held his crouched position. Illusion-Flare returned to her own original position, watching him for any hint that he would ignore her previous warning.
"I think that if I threatened your brother, you may find my terms more reasonable?" The leader continued, as if there had been no interruption.
"And you may find that I'd rather watch you all burn than be dragged back to Thanos in chains," Loki growled.
Flare made no objection this time, and Loki's wings unfurled a bit from his sides as he sucked in a large breath, flames gathering already at the back of his throat, still staring directly at and aiming for the leader.
Before he could release the fire, the leader made a sharp guttural sound, and a gathering of Chitauri separated revealing a long, sliver, cannon-like object. This fired another of the nets that had trapped Vision. It flew at massive speeds, almost invisible now that I didn't have Friday. Close to Loki, it expanded to a size that would surround him entirely, at a rapid pace that should have been impossible. I decided it must have been magic (though I still hated that word).
Loki had no time to dodge. The net closed and started to shrink.
And Loki flickered then disappeared in a flash of green light.
Illusion-Flare smiled widely, and she began to morph. Her red scales turned green, and she grew slightly bigger, until the lost image of Loki was replaced.
"Will anyone ever not fall for that?" Loki smirked. "And you've used your last net. Such a shame. Seems that if we try to trick you, we will not lose much at all. I do believe we are the benefitting party in this situation, actually."
The leader had frozen, but quickly recovered. "I can still kill your brother! Where is it? Tell me where the child is, now! Or I can use the Gem on you again and cause you both extreme pain to reveal its position!" Loki's smirk dropped slightly at this. I gaped."Tell me where it is!"
"She is a lot closer than you would be comfortable with," Loki said with a smug expression that he had quickly recovered. I noticed his emphasis on 'she,' which then made me realise how the Chitauri had always been using 'it.'
I had no more time to think of this, as the sound of metal screeching and then a loud snap was heard, and the two Chitauri holding Fony clutched at their throat with a choking sound, dropping the body. While they fell to the ground, Fony was uncovered to be in a crouch, with two short knives dripping with black blood held in his hands, and the chains that had bound him in pieces around his feet. Red blood was also still gently running in rivulets, soaking into his shirt and dripping to the floor.
Quickly, he made a flip amid the scratch of ripping material, and a dark brown blur shot at the leader, faster than it could react and use the knife it held against Thor. When it was hit, the Chitauri was swept through the air, to land hard on its back a fair distance from the Avengers.
The dark brown shape returned to Fony, and I saw that his wings had returned, and I have to say, wings on my image looked excellent. Even with the gaping cut on his neck and a shirt that was almost falling off, he managed to be threatening.
His features morphed back to Flare's, and wings turned from brown (my exact hair colour brown. Huh) to the previous mix of warm colours I had seen in the infirmary. At the same time the shift to herself took place, thin lines of flames started at her neck, fingers, and toes, and travelled quickly to the center of her chest. In their wake, black material clear of blood appeared until she was back in the black cat-suit edged with deep red as before. The change took less than a second. The wound on her neck was still there, though most of her blood that had spilled on the ground vanished as if it was never there, while what remained on the leader's glove shifted to red-gold. Absently, I saw that it was more gold than before, and again concluded it must be something linked to magic.
She flung out one arm toward the dumbfounded Avengers, though not looking away from the leader, mouthing something silently. In a flash of light, they vanished. I looked around in a panic, and noticed a similar flash outside of the army, close to but behind Illusion-Flare-turned-Loki.
The leader regained its feet with a growl at Flare. "I should have guessed you had something planned," it called across the space between them. Flare shrugged, in a 'you really should have known,' kind of gesture, but didn't reply aloud.
I realised I had looked away from Loki for too long when I heard a roar. The dragon stalked forward, shrinking and changing shape disturbingly, and within a few seconds there was Asgardian Loki running on his own toward the massive army of Chitauri. His armour was full black and green leather now, with diagonal cuts and asymmetrical overlaps like always, but with an open collar, virtually no metal, and the only gold colourings present were on some trimmings of material, and a small downward-pointing arrowhead under his collar. Lead by a line of green light similar to Flare's previous flames, an emerald green cape grew from underneath his shoulder guards, and then started to billow majestically behind him, making him seem like he was flying across the ground. He wasn't wearing his helmet of horns, and held two silver knives with blue handles, rather than a spear.
He tossed these knives while moving and caught them so he held the blade, then flung them full force. They were too fast to follow, and I could only tell where they went when the two Chitauri closest to him fell, bleeding from their neck like the ones Flare had killed.
More knives of the same colour appeared in his hands when he flexed his arms. He reached the rest of the army, most of which were heading for him, and started fighting like Nat would, elegant flips in the air and accurate strikes using every limb, with all the power of an Asgardian behind them. He used the occasional burst of green magic as well. Both his strength and his magic sent his opponents flying ridiculously high into the air, but they always got back up unharmed. He was quickly covered by Chitauri, though he didn't go down.
The leader looked at this with a half-smile. "How long do you think the princess will last, alone against 300 Chitauri? I give it a minute." Flare's face moved into a snarl, but she choked before she could make a noise. She spat a globule of red-gold blood onto the grass, then settled for glaring. "And you can't even speak! Shame I couldn't cut the throat of the Silvertongue this time. That always manages to silence it for a while."
Flare just made her glare even more menacing, before she slowly, gracefully, started moving toward her opponent. The leader did the same, though noticeably less graceful, and they began to circle each other.
When the leader next made to speak, Flare abruptly threw a small fireball. It managed to dodge, just, then growled and raised its hand to its head again. The Chitauri around the circle who were not already occupied with or heading toward Loki aimed the new guns at her. The bullets they fired were small and silver.
Flare was a whirlwind with her knives. She dodged as many as she could, and sliced the ones she couldn't avoid with her blades, even while in the air. Her avoidance drew her closer to my position.
It was while her back was turned that the leader made a move. It drew its own gun and aimed for the exposed skin between her wings, open as they were slicing bullets with the claws.
'Flare, behind you!'I sent the warning without thinking as the gun fired. I was thankful that I didn't yell it out loud, as someone would have heard me for sure.
She understood at least part of it, as she tried to turn to cut it, but she was too slow.
The bullet hit her at shoulder height, directly on her spine.
