Everything was so wrong. It made no sense.

Thor had watched while his friends maneuvered to try and save his brother's life.

After all that had happened, after Loki had slowly won the trust and the acceptance of his friends, he still thought he was going to be returned to Asgard. He, who had been so strong, so smart, so remarkable. If he hadn't been under the influence of that spell he would've seen that he needn't do such things, take such extreme measures. But the curse had clouded his mind, no doubt. His cell, his status of prisoner had seeped through his brother's whole existence, poisoned his thoughts.

Next to him, Tony was still shocked by what he had seen hours before. He remembered standing frozen on the doorstep, looking in horror at the scene before him. The blood. The lifeless body. The pills, thrown on the floor, some of them tainted red. The broken cup of champagne, empty. The note. And the blood, the blood everywhere, there was so much blood. He barely recalls starting screaming.

"Bruce, someone, help! HELP!"

He knelt in front of Loki, desperate, and tried to figure out where all the blood was coming from. There was a bloody gash on his temple but he didn't seem to be otherwise wounded. Could all that blood be coming from there? No, it was impossible. Getting closer, Tony heard the weird sound Loki's breathing had. It was slow and laboured - almost as if he was underwater and every breath choked him a bit. Scary.

"Help! Damn, I need help in here!"

Tony remembers cradling the man before and telling him to wake up, to no avail. Bruce and Thor appeared at the door.

"Oh, god..."

Bruce easily took over and checked the god's fleeting vital signs.

"Damn, the pulse is too weak... and where is all this blood coming from?"

Thor, who'd been rooted to the spot, suddenly sprung into action and took his brother in his arms. No more words were needed. They silently went to the place with the hospital bed and the supplies. They pumped his stomach out. There was more blood. It felt so wrong.

The problem should have been easy to solve - an overdose in a place with medical personnel (sort of) and medical equipment. Not to mention the god's exceptional resistance. Yes, people much weaker than him survived this kind of thing, even if they had the meds in their system for much longer. It should be easy, simple. Loki should have awoken by now, and Steve would be telling him that a soldier does not give up, never so easily; Bruce would told him he understands (because he really, really does) and Tony would just look at him and ask him in some flashy never to do that again while Thor looked with his guilt-filled baby blues. That should have what was happening. The little stunt with the pills and the note would just have been a cry for help, an extreme way of saying don't send me back.

But it was not that easy.

As resistant as he may had been on the past, Loki was very damaged. Not only he'd been thrown around and shot, but the more physical effects of the curse had reached a critical stage. The organs were damaged, more than one could have guessed after living with him. Bruce imagined Loki had some sort of control over it, to be relatively functional around other people. He willed himself awake, but now he had left all defenses behind. Looking at the pills Tony noticed that most of them were sleeping pills, sedatives and he suddenly understood. He hadn't used the pills to kill himself, no, that would probably not work. He was using the curse - that was why there was so much blood everywhere, because like they'd seen when he had nightmares, the spell had hemorrhagic capacities.

He was using that, but took the pills to shuts himself down, to go through all the process without having to suffer so much. And he was apparently succeeding. The combined effect of the sleeping and the effects of the curse had put Loki in a state similar to a coma. Bruce tried a myriad meds to try and wake him up (knowing that if he fell deeply into a coma it could be very difficult to wake him up again) but all his efforts were useless. He was fighting against magic, for god's sakes, it was like trying to catch air with one's hand.

Loki had known that - knew that they could fight the rest of the thing, but not the spell. Maybe he was just tired and wanted to rest. Bruce could sympathise with that. Sometimes it was too much, sometimes death was just too tempting. And if it had happened at some other time, if for instance, Thor had brought him for his jail in this state he wouldn't have tried to fix it. He would have told Thor that his brother was probably not going to wake again and to say goodbye. That there was nothing left to do. But now he couldn't, for the life of him. Now that everything was going to be fixed, now that Loki was going to have a chance, a chance to improve things for himself, a chance to have someone who understood him in some way. Bruce looked at the man and then at the blond god of thunder next to him. He didn't want to imagine what Thor could be feeling.

All the happiness, the enthusiasm that had exploded after Bolton's arrest was gone, having suddenly disappeared. The hours passed and Loki continued unmoving. Bruce had put him some oxygen to ease his breathing and stitched the gash on his temple and he remained unmoving while the world continued. The hours passed and the Avengers received many calls, thanking them for their work and asking them to talk, asking them for details. Steve went to talk to the press and then met Clint and Natasha in New York, but his thoughts kept going back to Newark, to the place where the rest of his friends were, to the place where the man who had saved him three times lay dying. It was supposed to be a day for celebrations, not depression.

Steve came back some hours later with Natasha and Clint and the atmosphere was as grim as when he left. He looked at Bruce and man merely shook his head. Tony continued.

"We tried contacting that Dr. Strange dude, but his secretary told us he's on the Himalayas on some secret mountains doing something secret to do his mentor. I've sent a Stark helicopter with a face recognition programme and talked to my contacts there, in case they see him but... by the time we get something..."

Loki may already be dead, he didn't say but was thinking. Steve needed to ask.

"How long?"

Bruce answered. He looked terrible - as if he hadn't slept properly in a week.

"He's strong, much more than any of us would be, but if he doesn't wake up and the damage continues at this rate...he's got a week, tops. I don't... I don't completely understand his physiology or how that spell works, but since I've seen him before and after nightmares and visions enough to know that he's in the middle of one and - and that it has produces massive damage on the organs. It's... he won't last... Not when he doesn't want to."

"Seems like your only chance is Thor. It's his father who made the spell, right? Maybe he convince the old man to unmake know that it has become a matter of life-and-death." Natasha said. She honestly didn't care all that much about Loki (if he had to die, at least he wouldn't die in prison, and that was something most terrorist didn't get) but she could see it was clearly distressing the others (Star had sent a chopper to the Himalayas to look for a guy who may or may not be of help!) so she tried to be helpful.

"Yes... we were trying to give him some space... but I guess it needs to be done, right?" Tony looked around, trying to avoid the difficult task. Thor had been on his brother's bedside all the time, refusing food or company. "Steve, why don't you go and ask him? Or Natasha? You're pretty good with words."

And why the hell not? Thor was a good guy, and it was quite clear that she was much more fresh than the rest of them.

Thor had been standing beside his brother's bed, willing him to wake, for hours and hours. He'd lost count. At first he'd been angry, really, angry. After all he and the others had done for him, how dare he throw it away? How could he not trust them after what they did? He had given no indication of wanting to send him back to jail and yet he was convinced that was what happening. The anger had faded slowly (he couldn't even imagine the pain Loki must have been feeling to even think of doing such a thing) and was replaced by exhaustion. So many things had happened in the last weeks...

The lady Natasha appeared in the door. Thor haven't even heard her arrive at the house.

"Hey, Thor, how are you holding up?"

"Better than him."

Natasha could have been very subtle, face the subject in many ways, but didn't feel like it. Sometimes the best way to approach a problem was being direct. And Loki looked almost dead, surrounded by all those machines, white as a sheet. Time was the essence.

"The others are worried, Thor, like I know you are. They say he won't last much longer if that spell is not lifted. Maybe you could talk to your dad again, convince him?"

Thor didn't want to talk to Odin again in a million years after what he'd learned last time. He wanted to forget the man even existed.

"I know you probably don't want to leave his bedside. But if you want him to live, there's only one chance, and that is you reversing the spell somehow."

"I cannot." Oh, how he wished he could do magic, just for a day. But even if he did, thought curses were very complicated, and there could be repercussions if the counterspell was done wrong.

"Even if you can't directly, I'm sure you can convince the old man. You're his son and only heir, Thor, you have a lot of power there. If you want to save your brother, make up to him - this is the moment."

The red-headed lady was right. There was no point in staying there, complaining. Now was a time for action. And her words had given him an idea... something he wouldn't have done if he wasn't desperate, but still.

Before he left for Asgard, Tony gave him a tablet.

"We've made a little video to help you convince your dad, just in case. Just press play, I hope it works in your place, too."

"Good luck." Steve said as goodbye and so Thor got out, and pointing Mjolnir into the sky, he was gone.

He found his parents on the throne room, as usual.

"Thor, what..."

He had no time for introductions or pleasantries.

"Father, I came here to ask you to undo the curse you put on Loki for a final time."

His mother's expression's hardened upon hearing the word curse.

"Why should I do that?" His father asked.

"Because he will die you do not. Fearful of returning to this prison, Loki is using the spell to harm himself. The results will be deadly if you do not act now. If you do not reverse the spell Loki will die in seven days."

Frigga looked bewildered.

"Well, maybe in death he will finally find peace." Odin sentenced.

"How could you be so cruel? Our son is dying!" Frigga said, standing up. "Lift that spell right now!"

"I am only doing what is necessary to ensure the peace and safety of the realm. Sometimes, difficult decisions must me made for the good of all. I cannot think of my family only, I have to think of all the families that would be destroyed if Loki did again what he did in Jotunheim and Midgard."

"How can you be so heartless?"

Thor had imagined it would go this way, even if part of him hoped his father would comply more easily. He sighed.

"As a citizen of Asgard, I cannot go against your orders, father but I will not let things continue this way. If you do not change your mind I will return to Midgard to... bury my brother and there I will remain."

"What do you mean?"

"I will give up my Asgardian citizenship, as well as my sit on the throne and remain in Midgard - forever. I will not live a day longer under the rule of the man who tortured my brother and condemned him to death as he tried to make up for his mistakes. Who ignored the request of his son, his wife and the earth's mightiest heroes. We only ask a little thing, father."

It seemed to be a good moment to show the video his friends had done. It did indeed work, and showed Steve, Tony, Bruce, Pepper and even Clint on the living room of the house where they'd been staying.

"Hello, Sir. My name is Steven Rogers and I am Captain of the army of the United States of America, on Earth. Me and my friends, the Avengers, wanted you to know of the brave acts Loki has performed while on earth to so you could reconsider your punishment. He saved my own life twice, sir, and freed Dr. Banner, the very man who defeated him last time on his own. Not to mention that he defeated Belveroth and saved all our lives, do not condone what he did in the past, but these acts deserve at least freeing him from that spell. Loki is dying, sir. Please help us save him."

Odin was unconvinced.

"See? This is why I wouldn't let him have any visitors because I knew he would trick anyone into freeing him. Your brother is a criminal, Thor. Small tricks like that one will not convince me to spare him."

"How can you possibly not see, father? Yes, I you help Loki he may come back wanting revenge and wreaking havoc but if you do not it will be me and my friends who will come and force if you must to change your mind."

"I do not fear you or your mortal friends, Thor. I see it is difficult for you now, but you will see with time that it's for the best."

"You would rather lose both your sons, would rather lose your heir than help someone who has acted like a hero? And you call yourself a wise leader? It will mean war."

A violent discussion started then between the three of them, Frigga and Thor on one side, Odin on the other. Loki would mean the destruction of their world and he had to protect it even if it meant losing his family.

Frustrated, Thor got out of the room and smashed Mjolnir on the floor, on the walls - everywhere. He felt so helpless, arguing about politics while his brother was dying painfully. No, this was not the end. He would go to his father with the force of the Avengers, with the Hulk and the Man of Iron and...

"There is an easier way."

A voice said behind him. The voice of a woman, watching him coolly.

"Amora?"

Of course! Why hadn't he thought of her? She was one the best magic practitioners of the realm! The enchantress herself!

"Take me to him, Thor. Let's give a lesson to old Odin."

A/N: Yes, I brought Amora for reasons unknown. Maybe because it my favourite brand of mustard. Anyways, only two more chapters of this sh*t, then it's the end. My only friend, the end.

Hope you liked it!

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