Since by coincidence I just had Tony and Bruce separated from the rest of the Avengers with a fantastic reason for why the Avengers didn't get involved in certain events, I leave it to the audience to decide if Tony has, shall we say, moved on from the past. It makes no difference to the story right now, so it's up to you to decide for yourself!
You two've got just moments left to give
Come back now and we will let you live
Stay inside our blue protective eye
We won't let them take you, we won't let you die
It was an odd sort of moment when Loki realized that someone was clinging to him as their personal lifeline. He held her with detached surprise at the simultaneous occurrence of two events which culminated into this one. He offered comfort, and that comfort was accepted with neither hesitation nor resentment. Every portion of this decision baffled him.
That he had done it.
That she had let him.
I should think I know your weaknesses better than any other. The echo of Frigga's voice plagued him. He felt exposed and soft, to be so easily manipulated into what his false mother wanted of him. Even now, with this mortal clasped to his chest while she dampened his armor with her tears, he served Frigga's intentions more than his own.
Yet the decision to offer this solace was his alone. He was not fool enough to think that Lynn was capable of any higher functions when in such a state. She had been distressed and desperate, hardly a time to exercise selectivity.
She was calming herself, though the trembling did not cease. He was concerned - what had Thanos done to agitate her so? She had no injuries aside from the blue and purple hand prints on her arms - Loki's mark on her person, and a grim reminder of the brittle nature of her species. How easily broken these mortals were.
She was breathing evenly now. He could argue her lack of discerning decision making skills before, when she was overcome by hysterics. Now, with only their quiet breathing in the air, he found himself uncertain of her rationale. He could pull himself away, of course. He could push her back, gently, by the shoulders. He could ask if she were better, which might prompt a sudden awkward realization of her positioning and cause her to pull away on her own.
He remained still and waited. To see what she would do.
"You said you wouldn't touch me," she said. Her voice was small and broken. "Without my consent."
Damn these mortals and their hopes. They latched to the smallest phrases as though the phrase itself were their salvation. He did pull away now, jaw clenched in anger. She hugged herself and dipped her head down as though staring at the floor.
He did not look at her arms.
"I had forgotten," he said. She laughed and the sound was strained.
"No you didn't." You just didn't care. Perhaps she wasn't brave enough to say it, or worried that she would drive him away with the accusation. He felt the words regardless. The air between them hummed.
"How did you know about my name?"
The sudden shift in topic threw him. He creased his brow and tilted his head, both motions wasted in the absence of her lenses. He raised his hands and waved them, palm over palm. The lenses materialized in a shimmer of power, and he slid the glasses onto her nose before she could protest.
She stood stock still. He heard a slight buzz to the right side of her head - the machine communicating with her. She tilted her head back, and back, and looked directly into his face. He smiled.
"JARVIS," she said, "how does he look?"
What a strange little mortal. He scoffed.
"You ask pointless questions."
"It's only pointless to you." She sounded distracted, listening to that tiny hiss of sound. Her next comment was a noncommittal "hm," which told him nothing. He waited for the statement he knew would come. But I thought you'd crushed them, she'd say, and finger the lenses, mystified by the circumstances. He was prepared; his response was both flippant and dismissive, to downplay a good deed and be more endearing to an audience.
Lynn started turning instead, and he realized she was taking stock of the entire quarters. In truth, the cell contained little by way of interesting distractions. She was attached to the wall, and the chains themselves were hooked far above where her hands could reach. This was the only disturbance in an otherwise drab, gray room.
She worried her bottom lip, looking at him again. "Do you have a blanket," she stated.
"What?" He furrowed his brow.
"A blanket or, or something warm? It's really cold."
"Is that all you have to say?" He was annoyed with her. Was she too foolish to understand what he'd done? Did she not care?
"Can I ask for help yet?" She pulled the glasses away from her face and pointed them at herself. The tinny hiss in her ear irked him further.
"I have already helped you." She put the glasses back on and looked at him.
"Thanks," she said. He laughed and turned away to begin a circling pace about the small quarters, unable to stand still in his irritation. She raised her voice behind him. "Wait, don't go -"
"I am not leaving." He turned back to her; despite her blindness, her eyes were wide and fearful. She seemed to calm herself within a few moments, as the machine communicated that he was still present. She rubbed her open palms against her arms to try and smooth away the goose pimples.
"What am I supposed to say?" She sounded resigned, as though she resented the question. "Is it the glasses? I'm supposed to ask where they came from?"
He tried not to react, and this was enough. The hiss in her ear persisted and she shrugged.
"I'm not a total idiot. It was an illusion. Right? You made me h-hear it -" she stopped and took a deep breath, unbalanced in the memory - "before you brought me here." He narrowed his eyes. Would she be overcome with emotions again? Neither of them had such time.
"Yes," he said. It calmed her. Loki shook his head at her, puzzled. How was it that he could predict her needs so accurately, yet so often missed her reactions? "Ask for further assistance, then. Perhaps I shall be merciful enough to grant it."
"Blanket." Lynn didn't demand or insist, merely repeated her request. "Do you feel the cold at all?"
"No." He had no blankets to offer. He reached through the air and drew forth a long green cloak - his own cape, re-purposed to grant her appeal. He stepped closer and swung the cloth in an arc to wrap over her shoulders. In a sudden impulse for frivolity, he draped the edge over her head to cover her face - and the machine's lenses.
"Jerk," she said, and she laughed when she said it. She adjusted the fabric to a comfortable shawl. He found his eyes drawn downward to see how the cloth pooled around her feet. The volume of unused fabric puddling around her toes was visual emphasis that she was terribly small, even for a mortal.
"I'm over five feet," she said defensively. The machine must have understood his expression. He smirked and she huffed.
"Are you Æsir?" Loki jolted back. Had Thanos given him away? It seemed an odd topic to address with a prisoner but the Titan was, after all, mad.
"I'm just curious," she added. "JARVIS says your body temp is lower than humans, which is already lower than Æsir. Most animals can't handle big changes like that - it could be a species indicator, if -"
"Does it matter?" he rasped. His teeth ground. She pulled the cape tighter around herself.
"It's not that strange. Humans adopt from other countries. They adopt other species a lot, too. Dogs and cats, and other things - not as smart as another person, but they become family anyway." She bit her lip, then continued in a quieter voice. "You don't have to be from the same place to be family."
He allowed the scowl he had fought so diligently to spread across his face. "Do you have any further emotional nonsense to jibber?"
"No," she said. Then: "Maybe. I don't do it on purpose. It's just that you, you - does Asgard have different music styles?"
"What?" The total confusion in his voice was in no way feigned.
"Different music. You know - kids listen to different stuff, adults complain about the crap kids listen to?"
"No."
"Oh." She tapped her ear where the machine spoke with her. "You seem like you could've used some Rage."
It was not that he did not find the topic worth discussing - he only had no inkling of what she meant, or how to carry the conversation forward. By his account, he carried enough rage to last several of her lifetimes.
"You never answered, about my name." Lynn seemed to grow more animated as her body warmed under the cloak, and Loki found himself floundering to try and decipher her train of thought. He let the struggle go, and merely focused on her words as they came.
"No," he said. "I did not." He was rewarded with a pair of narrowed eyes and flaring nostrils. She was easily provoked, when she was not chasing her own tail.
"So? How?"
Loki started pacing, unable to remain still any longer. "If I answer your question, with full honesty, will you reciprocate?"
"I can't know if you're honest."
"You can assume I am not. But I will know if you lie."
Lynn seemed to consider this decision carefully. Even such a small deal with the trickster perturbed her. He was gratified to see her hesitation - though he also regretted the length of the pause.
"Ok," she said. "Fine." He smiled and she looked nervous when the hissing informed her of his expression.
"I assisted with the construction of the device which your Avengers used to navigate to the Chitauri. During that time, I was privy to your information via a SHIELD file."
She looked perplexed. "SHIELD has a file on me?"
"Yes."
She did not seem entirely comfortable with the thought. With his own experiences with the same organization, and more the knowledge of what their agents - and the organization itself - were capable of, Loki could not fault her for her caution.
Now it was his turn to ask a question and be granted an honest answer.
"Why did you fear my voice?"
As her body language shifted to sudden defeat, he realized that in warming she was neither more animated nor bolder - she had simply forgotten the state of affairs, for a short while. And now, with his question, she remembered. Though he lacked the ability to hear her thoughts, he watched as reality draped itself across her shoulders as surely as he had draped the cloak. She seemed weighed down, heavier under the brunt of whatever thoughts now marred her mind. Loki felt concerned to see her life fade away to anxiety.
She said nothing, and he pressed.
"What has Thanos done to you," he added when she remained mute. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Her stubbornness prickled his temper. "If you will not tell me, I cannot help -"
"He's going to r-rape me," she snapped, and both of them startled back at her vehemence. She hugged herself and turned away. "Unless I tell him about the Avengers." Her voice warbled; she looked like a lost waif, draped in his colors and so far away. "I don't understand why. They can just pull the information out, but he, he wants me to tell him -"
"They cannot access your mind." Lynn turned to him, blinking. "I have shielded both of us from them."
"That's why," she said in a tone of revelation. "He can't get it out."
Loki looked away, toward the wall where her chains fastened her in place. He felt separated from himself, a transcendent audience peering back at her confession with contemplative interest. That the Titan would threaten her in such a specific way - that Thanos would intimidate one under Loki's protection - and then he felt Frigga's words again, pounding away until he heard nothing else. He thought he might understand, now, how Thor felt upon the mountaintop when laying claim to Midgard.
Curse you, Frigga. His mental voice was venomous and sincere. Curse you to the fiery bowels of Muspelheim. May your flesh be seared from your bones, wretched woman.
"You will tell him of your knowledge, then, and spare yourself this disgrace."
"I can't tell him anything," Lynn whispered. Loki bristled.
"You would sacrifice yourself for nothing -"
"If he kills them it won't be because of me." The boldness returned in part, bolstered in response to his anger. He flared with temper and stepped toward her. She stood her ground, looking up at him but lacking the full brunt of his physical presence. He gripped her shoulders to lend weight to his words, and shook her slightly to make her pay heed.
"Your pledge is senseless. You will tell him anything he asks, and be glad for his mercy."
"I won't." She straightened under his palms and tilted her chin up, the image of human pride. The trickster hissed.
"What could you know, that would grant him such power?"
She jerked her shoulders away from his hands and stepped back. "You tried to kill them too." She shook her head, eyes brightening in the dim light as they filled. "You're with him, you're -"
Loki tilted his palms up and shook his head to show no threat. Lynn took another step away, and paused when her back met the jagged wall. Further words would continue to antagonize her. Instead, the trickster waved one palm over the other. A small cloth parcel appeared in one palm, and he drew aside the wrap to reveal a pastry filled with meat. Stored away for many days in the stasis of the in-between, the heat still rose in steamy waves from the small tear along the corner.
He offered the food with one hand, and waited. Her eyes widened as the sight before her was relayed, and her nostrils flared when the aroma reached them. She gnawed her bottom lip and stepped forward, once, with her hand outstretched. He slid the cloth parcel into her palm and stepped away.
He admitted himself impressed when she spent several seconds investigating the pastry before taking a desperate bite. She shuddered and closed her eyes before her second bite, savoring the flavor along with the satisfaction of some form of meal.
He conjured his water skin next, knowing that the food would remind her mortal body of further basic needs. When she finished the pastry he took her hand and wrapped her fingers around the neck of the skein. She sipped at first, and then guzzled. She covered her mouth with her free hand and offered the skein back to him. She kept the cloth wrapping clenched tight in her fist.
"Thank you," she said quietly, in earnest.
"You are welcome," he said.
Thor had taken Natasha's place when Clint awoke that morning, and the archer was certain that the look on the thunderer's face spelled trouble in every possible way.
"Thor," he said by way of introduction. He didn't like putting off hard conversations for later.
"Barton," Thor said, and his armor creaked as the thunderer shifted his weight. "You were the last to visit my brother before he escaped."
"Yeah, that's right." Clint knew what was coming and had no idea how to defend himself.
"The frost is melted. This was found not three paces from Loki's pedestal." Thor dropped a brittle, destroyed electronic disc onto Clint's legs. The frost-charred metal flaked onto Clint's thin blanket.
"What did you say to my brother, Barton?"
Damn. "Thor -"
"I seek your rationale, not your apology."
Clint took a deep breath. "I told him we could nuke Asgard to get rid of him." Clint watched the thunder god's blue eyes darken to cloudy gray. "If he made us."
"What was the purpose of antagonizing him?" Thor sounded like he could chew rocks to powder between his teeth. Clint thought he heard thunder in the distance.
"It was a bluff, Thor. He needed to believe we'd do it. The Chitauri came to Asgard, and Loki didn't open that portal. He had nothing to do with it. I wanted to know just how bad the guy in charge is." Clint ran a hand through his hair. "That's when he snapped. I said we'd throw him to the Tesseract and let whoever wanted come calling - and that's when he blew the room."
"What did you learn?"
"He's scared of whoever it is. Enough to let it show." Thor's cloudy eyes seemed close to black from the intensity of his emotions. Loki was not the sort of man who showed fear willingly without calculation involved. Was this an attempt to force sympathy from those who heard the tale?
Or, worse, was his little brother truly so terrified that his masks slipped away for a moment of time?
"My father knows his master," the thunderer said. "He is an entity called the Mad Titan, or Thanos, who seeks to unmake creation."
Clint pushed himself to sitting; his wrapped arm twinged and he ignored it. "When you say 'creation' -"
"Thanos is after the Infinity Gauntlet, which holds the power to destroy all." When Thor left "all" generalized, Clint felt a shiver run across both arms and along his neck. "The Gauntlet was stolen during the attack. My father takes heart in our continued existence. This is evidence that Loki is deceiving more than Asgard."
"You think he's double crossing Thanos?"
Thor nodded and reached for Clint's wrapped arm. The archer spent the time until Thor's fingers found him debating whether he should try to run, realizing that he couldn't outrun the thunder god when he was right there, and resigning himself to whatever Thor was about to do.
Thor tugged at the bandages, seeking out the tie which held them in place. When he found the tight knot he heaved and tore the knot in two, then began slowly unraveling the bindings from Clint's arm.
Clint looked down as his arm revealed itself under the cloth. The skin was pale and slightly yellowed, wrinkled in grotesque patterns. He scowled. When Thor finished, he lifted the arm and clenched his fist, then rotated his shoulder around the joint. A few pops, some pressure - otherwise, the movement was smooth. He flexed his bicep and nodded.
When Thor began pulling at his blanket, he jolted and grabbed it to hold it in place. "I'll take care of those."
Thor looked perplexed, but sat back and drew his hands away. Clint breathed a sigh of relief; he much preferred to handle his legs on his own.
"Do you feel well enough to fight?" the thunderer asked. "Hogun will remain behind, for his hand pains him greatly still - he will stand with us in spirit." The beleaguered expression told Clint how well the Asgardian had taken the news. "We cannot wait for his wound to mend. The woman Lynn Creed remains in terrible danger while we wait, and my brother..."
Thor's voice trailed away. He stood suddenly and Clint swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He eyed the bandages, then waved to the thunderer when he found the knots. Thor broke the binds and Clint began unwrapping his legs. He kept his eyes down as he spoke.
"I had a brother," he said, and Thor looked at him. They remained quiet while Clint finished his task, stood and stretched his muscles. He braced one foot against the bed and leaned his weight forward, then repeated with the other leg. He straightened and looked at Thor.
"I feel fine. Let's get to it."
Lynn grew drowsy after eating and drinking her fill, and Loki felt a greater inclination to explore than watch her try to stay awake in his presence. He took his leave of her with a pledge to return. She insisted that he take the glasses back while away, to keep them safe. He obliged.
This mountain was home to several thousand Chitauri, who scuttled through the corridors of their carved home as giant termites, twittering to each other. The trickster paid them no mind; they were lesser and deserved none of his regard. Only their leader caught his ear, and that on rare occasions.
He sought neither their leader nor their master now. He came upon a split in the cave system and turned toward the brightest entrance, which billowed warm air into the otherwise cold atmosphere. The great dome opened ahead with the sun blazing in the center. Loki paused to watch a solar flare leap from the roiling surface and lick at the surrounding air before plummeting back into the surface of the miniature sun. The sight was beautiful, though he could have done without the heat and regretted his insistence on creating such a likeness.
Loki turned away from the sun and walked the Nine. He had elevated scrying to a profoundly powerful weapon with these creations under Thanos' guidance. Each pedestal granted the observer the opportunity to view any location within the realm. With the Tesseract's power to enhance his own, the planets became less an enigma and more a physical presence made of reproducible elements, represented by scale models.
He bypassed Jötunheimr for Asgard, but paused when he saw the state of the Midgardian platform. He walked closer and saw a deep gouge within the front of his creation; as he observed, a flicker of blue Tesseract light attempted to reconstruct the broken base. The sight reminded him of Thor's lightning as the blue poked and prodded along the shattered stone before retreating back into the pedestal.
How curious, he thought. Had Thanos done this in a rage after losing Midgard? It seemed a small amount of damage for the Titan. Perhaps the Chitauri leader took out his frustrations against the trickster's creation.
Weighted footsteps pulled his attention backward, where Thanos entered the room and paused upon seeing the trickster. They regarded one another for several long seconds, until Thanos broke a smile across his features.
My friend, he rumbled. How I have missed your company.
"You keep fools for minions," Loki said. "I imagine conversation is stimulating with the slag. 'Dearest Master, I will forever serve you.'"
Is that not what you wanted from Midgard? Thanos stepped closer, looking at the destroyed pedestal where Loki stood. To conquer all, to rule uncontested - is there greater victory than this?
"Your fools lost Midgard for me." Loki waved a hand to the model, where another blue light flickered in a desperate dance to mend its wounds. "I see the regard given me for my failure."
That was not I.
"No? The slag, then - predictable in his outrage. Did he try to convince you of his innocence?"
No, Thanos said, and reached to pluck a clump of stone from the shattered model. The little mortal did this.
Loki scoffed. "She is hardly strong enough to hold herself on her own feet." Thanos watched him, and the trickster raised his eyebrows as time passed. "You jest."
No. Thanos tossed the broken slab to the ground, where it clattered against the wall. She escaped.
Not from Thanos, such a thought was impossible. Which left the Other, in all his nervous despair upon seeing the Gauntlet gone. Loki laughed.
"He lost you the Earth, and then he lost the mortal? It is a wonder that you let him live."
One further task, to prove himself. Thanos folded his arms behind his broad back. To allow me to provide a great bounty to my love.
"Ah, yes. I discovered him seeking out your Gauntlet - his forces were too long delayed, and it was hidden away by the All-Father himself, as I told him. Your slag listens not."
A third failure in so little time. He is granted his final attempt, before I choose another to lead in his stead.
"Another chance? Your mercy is boundless." Loki hid neither his sneer nor his criticism. He had performed as agreed and warranted no punishment, and therefore felt no fear in the presence of the Titan. There was little wonder that the Chitauri leader grasped this final crumb of clemency.
Not so boundless, Thanos said. Even in failure, he serves my purposes.
Loki shook his head. "Even Death would not have him."
It would be a bitter meal.
Loki chuckled and touched two fingers to the wrecked pedestal. "Shall I fix this? It will take several days, I would need to rebuild the entire pedestal -"
Midgard is no longer my concern. I target the Realm Eternal, to reclaim my prize.
The Gauntlet. Loki drew his fingers away, and a flicker of the Tesseract's blue energies ghosted around his finger as he pulled. "I would retrieve it, if you wish."
No. The insanity trickled forth, and Thanos was staring at the sun now, his yellow eyes reflected in the swirling fires. The mortals who defeated you are there, and I will not lose the Gauntlet to them. Thanos reached forward and slid two fingers through the surface. A solar flare snaked along his palm and wrist, and began to climb his arm. His molten skin glowed in the heat of the fire, but otherwise remained unscathed. I will discover their defeat soon enough.
Loki felt cold detachment settle in his chest. "How soon?"
My servant attempts his final task now, Thanos said. If he fails a final time, I will succeed in his stead.
The trickster took a moment too long to understand the underlying message. The cold settled deeper inside him, spreading from his chest to his limbs until he felt nothing but the chill of frost. Thanos departed, thinking the trickster lost in thought or otherwise engaged in his ponderings over repairing the pedestal.
Once the footsteps faded, Loki turned and exited the dome.
The Avengers gathered in Thor's quarters along with Fandral, Sif and Volstagg. Hogun entered behind Volstagg and glared at Thor, daring the thunderer to say a word in protest. Thor smiled and clasped his old friend on the arm. Tony eyed the Æsir's casted arm and shook his head.
"Don't get killed," he said, "it'll slow us up."
Hogun nodded in response. Bruce cleared his throat and fixed them all with a mournful kind of casual look.
"Heimdall can't find them." `
"What?" Steve, who'd been leaned against the wall, straightened himself to standing. "Why not?"
"He can't see them. Apparently that's a trick that Loki pulled before," Tony said. He shrugged. "It's no big, we still have the original coordinates -"
"Are we certain that they have been taken to the same location?" Sif asked. "It is possible, after your first attack, that the Chitauri moved their bearings."
"And did anyone else notice that they knew exactly where we were?" Natasha jerked her chin in Steve's direction. "He and Sif were in the middle of nowhere."
Sif looked at Thor and spoke gently. "Thor, do you think -"
"Yes," the thunderer said. "My brother must have placed tethers upon all of us over these past many weeks, which allowed the Chitauri to target us directly."
"Well," Tony said, "that's a bitch. Can we get rid of it?"
"I will speak with the All-Father." Thor glanced at Clint, who nodded and addressed the group.
"There's something else. Loki's definitely working for someone, a guy named Thanos." The Æsir present besides Thor jolted and narrowed their eyes at the name.
"The Mad Titan?" Fandral looked uneasily at his compatriots. "Even Loki would not throw in his lot with such a creature."
"Translation for the exchange students," Tony said. Thor nodded.
"Thanos craves the Infinity Gauntlet, which holds the power to unmake all creation." Tony's eyes widened and he looked at Clint, who nodded to confirm the scientist's suspicions. "He battled my father many millennia ago, and lost the Gauntlet in the struggle, to be kept sealed away in our vaults. The Gauntlet was taken during the attack."
"Holy shit," Tony said. "So he's going to unmake everything?"
"He does not have it," Thor said.
"If he did, we wouldn't be here," Clint added.
"So us being here is proof he doesn't have it yet," Bruce said slowly. "That's...comforting in a twisted way."
"If he doesn't have it, who does," Tony demanded. Clint and Thor both met his eyes, and the inventor rolled his eyeballs nearly into the back of his head. "Of course. Whose side is he on anyway?"
"Loki would not allow the destruction of the Nine," Sif said. "He could not aspire to rule nothing." Steve laid a hand on her shoulder; she glanced from him to Thor and pursed her lips.
"So," Tony said, "we've got no specific place, but we've got coordinates. We'll beam to the Chitauri -"
"We don't have them anymore, Tony," Bruce said. Tony blinked. "We got rid of them, remember? Because of the Council..."
Steve looked between the two scientists. "We don't have them anywhere?"
"Too risky," Bruce said while Tony clasped a hand over his eyes and made a strangled noise. "We didn't want the Council making a decision without us."
"And we thought a pair of baby golds would get us there."
Steve considered. "Well, if he can't see their exact location -"
"No, Steve. Heimdall can't see any of it. The entire planet is hidden to him." Bruce crossed his arms loosely. "We're totally blind."
"Hold," Fandral said, "we cannot mean to leave Lynn in their possession?"
"We need a way to get there," Steve said. The press of failure began to ache between his eyes. He pinched the skin between his thumb and forefinger while flexing his fingers in long splays. To the outsider view, he was stretching his hands. For himself, he was deploying a pressure point to relieve the tension across his forehead.
"So without the coordinates, we have no way to find them," Natasha said. She peered at Tony and Bruce, who exchanged a look before Bruce nodded at her.
"Yeah, we can't beam anywhere blind."
"Where does that leave us?" Steve looked at the scientists, spies and gods. All of them looked back at him with expectant anticipation.
He pinched his skin a little harder.
"Alright," he began, "Bruce and Tony, go to Heimdall and see if he can get us anywhere near the Chitauri. Maybe we don't need to beam straight there. Clint, Natasha, start thinking strategy. We attacked them once before, so they know our pattern. Find us a new one that includes Thor's friends. You three -" he pointed to the uninjured Æsir excluding Thor "- back on reconstruction. The city needs every hand it can get. Hogun, back to the healing ward. We might have a few more days, so let's get you as close to full recovery as possible."
Tony threw his open palm into the center of the group. "Go team!" Bruce sighed and nodded at Steve to show they understood their assignment. Volstagg ducked his head in respect, then left with Hogun who was flanked by Fandral. The two Æsir would escort their stubborn friend to the healing ward as commanded. Thor waved at them to show he would soon follow, and Sif approached Steve as the remaining Avengers exited the room.
"Steve," Sif said, "what will you do?"
"I'll help you rebuild." The soldier was staring at an abandoned guitar leaned against one of Thor's chairs. He picked it up by the neck and twisted the frame to look the instrument over. There were signs of wear decorating the entire body. This was an older, well-used guitar that had seen better days. He turned it to look at the base, where a set of initials were carved into the bottom by a young hand, along with a date.
LC 01/17/1988
"This is Lynn's guitar," Steve said with dawning awareness. "Tony brought her guitar."
"He seems a kind man," Sif said. "Though quiet in his charity."
"We won't mention it to him," Steve said as he sat in the chair and strummed a chord. Tony would just get annoyed, and they didn't have time for a spat with the testy inventor. Steve adjusted a few of the strings and tried again. The A chord rang perfectly in the room. He remembered making Lynn promise to play them a song.
"We will retrieve them both," Thor said. He stood with his arms crossed, looking out the window at the Golden Realm as the light waned into dusk. Steve began a quiet, mournful tune and let his emotions carry out the window on the warm evening breeze.
A gurgling whimper signaled that she'd had a visitor in his absence. Loki inspected the room in its entirety before entering, and approached the girl with soft footfalls. Lynn was on the floor, the cloak beneath her, her wrists dangling limply on either side of her head. Her breathing was labored and she flinched every third breath. A smear of blood dotted her lower lip. When she coughed, more appeared. Her fingers twitched; Loki heard the quiet buzzing near her ear as he approached and crouched before her.
Without a word, he reached for the left chain and traced a runic pattern against the solid metal. She sputtered a whine when she felt his hands at work and tried to pull away from him; he held her wrist and continued.
"This will take time," he said, and she stilled and opened her blank eyes. "You must be patient." His voice was as cold and hard as the rest of him.
"The monster was here," she said. Loki traced his runes. "I could see him." That made the trickster pause, and she spoke into his silence. "I saw Thanos when he, t-touched me...the monster said..."
Loki began his work again. If Thanos were able to lift the curse upon her eyes at his touch, then this truly was a reversible condition. It also seemed as though he could also grant others the same ability. The trickster bitterly mused that the Titan had never thought to teach him the same trick, which meant he could still not lift the curse from Lynn without Thanos' guidance.
Despite his anger, he worked steadily with little to distract him. Lynn remained still until a gentle click echoed against the walls.
"You're freeing me," she said. Loki said nothing. "Why? There's no benefit to you in this." He still said nothing. "Answer me!"
"Must there be a benefit?" He took her hand in his and inspected her wrist. The skin was pale and somewhat raw, but otherwise undamaged. He dropped the hand, then took the other and began the same task.
She apparently had no answer to that, or if she did the buzzing in her ear talked her away from speaking. Loki could imagine the words, even without hearing the voice. He's helping, it must be saying, just let him.
The second shackle clicked open and he checked her wrist again. It was in the same state as the first; he straightened and turned, waving his palms one over the other to -
The Other stood watching him. Loki paused and met the creature's masked face with a blank expression. The creature looked down to Lynn, who was rubbing her wrists and starting to pull herself to her feet using the wall. Then he fixed that mask on Loki and sneered.
"Lord Thanos will be disappointed to lose an ally."
"We are not allies." Loki recommenced waving his palms over one another, with another item in mind for the calling. Behind him, Lynn pressed herself into the wall and froze.
"And yet you returned."
"Yes," the trickster said, and lunged forward, plunging the conjured dagger deep into the creature's chest. He wrenched the blade to the left and shoved further, until purple blood gushed from both front and back. The creature grasped at his arm in shock, and Loki leaned ever forward, his eyes glittering queerly in the dim light.
"To see the life leave your body. To abandon you as carrion for the lesser animals to feast upon. Yes. I returned."
The Chitauri leader collapsed and twitched as though attempting to call out for help. Loki pulled the dagger from his body in a spray of purple gore and smiled. A gentle, terrible smile topped by those deadly glittering eyes. He looked to Lynn and saw droplets of the creature's blood across her cheeks, scattered from the act. Loki conjured a thick cloth and wiped the blade clean in one long sweep.
Lynn was watching him, eyes focused and wary. Loki tilted his head and assumed that the blood must be granting her temporary sight. Inspired, Loki twisted the stained cloth used to clean the dagger to dampen it further in gore, and soaked up purple blood from the spreading puddle at his feet to ensure every section of the cloth was saturated. He approached her as the creature gave one final heave and perished, or at least stopped moving.
Lynn stared in the direction of the corpse in mute shock. To think he was dead - to think Loki killed him -
"Will you come?" The trickster stared down at her while she stared at the monster, and she took a moment to refocus herself and look up at him. Her mouth had fallen open and she panted in fear. His hand was outstretched as though to offer assistance, help her to her feet and bear her away from this place. Would Loki kill her too, now that he had no reason to keep her alive?
"Will you?" This time his voice grated the demand and she shook herself. She looked at the body of her tormentor, then to Loki's outstretched hand. She reached to take the hand with one hand while gripping the cloak in other. There wasn't much choice in this place.
Loki's eyes were unfocused and cruel, and she recognized his look of strain. Her nostrils flared and she closed her mouth. Now was not the time to distract him with a panic.
She nearly lost the battle when Loki tied the stained cloth to her right arm. The blood was already cooling and would dry to a hard crust in time. She shuddered and tried to ignore the roiling nausea in her stomach. She adjusted the cape so that her upper arms were hidden from her sight, and refused to think about the sticky itch beginning against her skin.
They walked. She limped slowly and Loki let her; the Chitauri seemed distant for the moment, far removed from this cave. A moment after she thought this, one crept into view and hissed; Loki's dagger cleaved its head from its shoulders. A second appeared. A third. Each, in turn, lost their lives for standing in Loki's way.
She limped on and said nothing. Loki was filled with blood-lust, and if she turned that terrible attention on herself she too would lose her life.
They emerged into the open air. She hugged herself against the chill air of the mountain; Loki appeared not to notice. Now, in the open, she saw the mountain hive. She couldn't make out many features, since she was on the mountain as well; but the numerous caves she could see reminded her of a wasp nest, and she shuddered at the thought. A giant wasp's nest full of creatures that attacked her home. Both homes.
Loki turned to regard the mountain with scorn. His hatred guided his eyes up, up to the top where the leviathans docked their troops. Even now there were dozens of them taking on cargo, and Chitauri, and weapons. The armada prepared its assault on Asgard, and this time they would bring enough to win. A second mountain stood in the distance, and the leviathans and Chitauri soldiers trekked in that direction. Lynn squinted to see better and realized it was no mountain, but a ship - their massive ship which the humans had only caught bare glimpses of through the first portal. Or...she thought it was a ship. A ship with four spiked corners, cruel and jagged against the sky. And then the corner furthest away moved. A great bellow echoed across the land and ricocheted from their position back to the beast.
A mountain, a ship, and a behemoth. The scope of the thing overwhelmed her; its body extended and contracted as it leaned against the chill air, the atmosphere so thin that the stars seemed close enough to tap its highest point. Her mind couldn't understand - it was too immense, it couldn't exist -
Loki stood at the edge of the cave. His blood-lust still raged, and there were so many victims below. His hands flickered, a deft sleight of hand, and a rectangular object appeared between them. He gripped either side and pointed it outward. His hands looked darker, dark as her own skin, and she creased her brow to see it. The god straightened himself to his fullest height, tilted back his head, and sneered.
He reached into the Casket of Ancient Winters, deep down into its core, and tapped the power there which only the son of Laufey might command. It built; his pale skin sloughed away and his true form shone stark in the dimness. He reached, and tapped, and opened himself as a spigot for the Casket's strength. And then, seeing himself as the barrier, he stepped aside to let the power flow.
Frost erupted across the mountainside first, and raced in every direction from the mouth of their cave. The surge swept down through the other caves and deep into the heart of the mountain, and Lynn heard screams of agony below as the ice burned the Chitauri inside to death. It turned, then, with no further victims to claim, and rushed outward - flung itself down, an avalanche of death, and covered the foot of the mountain. More screams and cries, thousands of them. Still the ice rushed forward and spread, an arctic blanket. It overtook the troops heading toward the behemoth; it overtook the pathways and crevices and raced further, ever further, destroying all in its path.
Lynn was crying, had been crying since the first screams. She tried to grab Loki, to shake him from this oblivion, and burned her hand black. She fell to her knees and covered her face to shield herself from what he was doing. So much death, so much -
They tried to fight back. She heard the roars of the leviathans as they turned to face their threat, heard the loud clatters and crashes as those same were caught in the torrent of frost and fell to the ground. They shattered when they hit, and despite her denial she heard that too. A great crack as their mighty bodies splintered against the stone of their home.
Stop, she thought, as hard as she could. Loki, stop, stop this -
He could not hear her. The frost continued to wash forward and expand, building upon itself, rushing forward and forward until -
The first shriek sounded unreal. It echoed in their cave, up and down the length of the ice-coated tomb before returning to its creator. A second shriek, and a third, and the behemoth in the distance tried to take a step, to launch itself away from this burning, this agony, and its shrieks filled her eyes until she took up Loki's dagger and swung the blunt end straight into his blue Jötunn head.
The frost sputtered as he fell, and the Casket collapsed to the side. Loki gripped the side of his head where the dagger connected and groaned. She hit him again, to put him on the ground, and he caught the dagger in his hand and shoved her back. She stumbled and fell with a cry. He was upon her in an instant, and his hands rested on either side of her head. She could feel the cold from his body as clearly as she could see the red of his eyes. He was snarling, mad with his rage, and if he touched her now he would kill her.
She turned her head away and closed her eyes, braced and ready. He pushed himself back and up, away from her, and she opened her eyes to look at him. The blue and red were fading, his pale skin showing through. She shook.
He looked away from her to his work. A great swath of ice blanketed the landscape, filled with crannies of Chitauri raising their hands in their death throes. Other corpses littered the belt; leviathans surged up and down the valley, frozen forever in a rictus of dying. And the behemoth, the beast that would carry them to their victory, was collapsed to its side and writhing in slow movements against the universe's light. One mighty leg was cracked straight down the middle and split in two, and even from this distance the white of its bone gleamed in the starry light. Lynn stood up and shivered in the cold mountain air, now colder for the induced winter engulfing the mountain. She looked upon the field of death with wide, uncomprehending eyes. How many were dead? Thousands upon thousands? How many -
Loki, pale-skinned once more, reached a hand to her as though to steady her. And she, craving any source of comfort in this tomb, took his hand.
Together, they watched the Chitauri world die.