It was only seconds before Thor and Amora reappeared in the very same place from which Thor had left for Asgard - In the front garden of the house where everyone was staying at. Thor warned the enchantress that things were quite different on Midgard, but she told him she'd been there before.
"Your brother is not the only who knows how to jump between realms, Thor."
That woman was a true mystery and she was dangerous, too. Thor knew she could extremely unpredictable, but he also knew of her impressive skills with magic.
They knocked on the door and Tony's head appeared when he opened.
"Thor, buddy, did you manage..." and then, noticing the woman beside him added "Well, hello to you..."
"Let us in, Stark." Thor was in no mood for Stark's antics, he was still furious about his father's behaviour.
How could he abandon Loki in his darkest hour? And it was not the first time, either. His mind went back to the Bifrost incident when Loki was on the edge of an abyss and Odin refused him. He should've known this was going to go the same way, that trying to convince Odin would be useless. But it was his father, and he thought him a better person. Maybe Loki had been right when he claimed that the old man favoured his first-born. Maybe he'd been right about other things he dismissed as lies, too. Thor felt as if he'd been blind all his life and was now slowly starting to see. And he wasn't liking what he saw.
On the living room, the Asgardians found the rest of the group and Tony introduced himself and the others.
"Ok, so, Lady, I'm Tony Stark" he said, as if it should something to Amora who remained unimpressed "and those are Pepper, the Captain, Clint and Natasha."
"I am Amora - it is a pleasure meeting you all. Thor has often spoken your remarkable valor, mortal warriors."
Tony imagined that the absence of the old man and the thunderer's angry but sad expression (the picture of frustration of rage) meant Odin had not yielded to Thor's demands.
"Your ol' man was not convinced?"
"He was not. He refuses to release my brother from his vicious grip. Hopefully, Amora will be able to provide some help."
"You do magic too?"
Amora shot a look of deep offence to the man of iron.
"I am called The Enchantress, mortal. I am bested by very few across the realms. Take me to Loki, Thor."
Thor did as ordered and took Amora to the room where Loki lay, across the house. With dismay, he saw his brother looked even worse than before he left. Logical, probably, but still sad. Bruce was on the other side of the bed, concentrated on some sort of medical chart. He looked extremely tired.
"Oh, Thor, you're back!"
"Yes, I am. Amora, this is Doctor Bruce Banner, a man of science and one of the fiercest warriors of the realm. Friend Bruce, this is Amora, called the Enchantress, from Asgard." Amora looked at the doctor skeptically. How could this little man be such a fierce warrior?
"How fares my brother, doctor Banner?"
Bruce sighed.
"It's bad, Thor. I thought we were getting him back this morning but it was a false alarm. And he's been getting worse after that. I was worried he'd be gone before you came back."
Amora looked at Loki, amazed. He looked so little like the Loki she knew from back home, so different and powerless. Before his imprisonment, before it all went wrong, he'd been so awake, always cheating and bending the rules and tricking people just for fun. He performed the most complicated spells as if they were the easiest things in the world. He had a natural gift for magic that was rare and fascinating in many ways.
He had made her angry plenty of times, yes - but she also admired him. His unparalleled skills, his little to none respect for the rules. The fact that he was his own self (with the mischief and the tricks and all that went with it) in a sea of drones who obeyed, and were noble and good and boring soldiers. No, he was something else, something more interesting.
"You seem surprised." Thor told her.
"I assumed he was lying, like he always used to do. I thought I would only have to be undo the trickery he was using to fake his illness... But it is obviously not the case."
She stroked the man's face, sad. She had to fix this injustice.
"Loki, what have they done to you?"
She started thinking for a while and then a small book materialised in her hands. It was time to get working. She had to do this, for the good of magic, for her dearest Thor, for Loki and for the sake of rebellion and critical thought. Odin was not going to kill anybody else with his tyrannical ways if she could prevent it.
"It is the effects of a thought curse what you see, Amora. Do you think you can reverse it?"
She drew some sort of rune in Loki's forehead that suddenly glowed.
"Thought spells are tricky, they embed themselves in the person's psyche and become a part of the mind. I will need all the details about this particular spell."
"I think... think it was thrown when Loki was put in jail in his isolation jail. And it mimics the prisoner's disease."
Amora nodded making circles above Loki's head, while she kept reading the book. A magical book, with the wisdom of thousands of them in it - but that only showed you the spells you needed to see every time. A little trick Loki himself had shown her to avoid carrying around lots of books. This precise chapter was focused on magic of the mind, hallucinations, illusions and curses, too.
"Do we know what the trigger thought is?"
"No peace for you, monster. You're only getting what you deserve." Bruce muttered, darkly. The enchantress was shocked.
"Oh, for the love of the Nine realms! Your father is mixing efficiency with cruelty again, Thor."
Careful, she approached Loki again and whispered to his ear.
"Fear not, friend. You will be whole and causing mischief soon enough."
She added the information she knew of the curse into the counterspell, to make it to more effective, by chanting under her breath and making circles with her hand above the glowing rune.
To say that Bruce was amazed would have been an understatement. Magic. True magic. Right in front of him.
"This is a spell of the mind we are fighting, a spell made with thoughts." Amora declared.
"You want us think against it." Thor continued, understanding what she meant.
"Yes. I want you to think of Loki without this spell - not as a prisoner but as the warrior he used to be. I want you to think of him not as a monster, but as someone with a heart and a mind worth rescuing. I want you to think that he does not deserve this. As hard as you can."
Thor nodded and so did Bruce.
In the living room, the remaining Avengers had been listening to the enchantress' words and were planning on doing the same.
"To close the counterspell in a better manner we should make a closed circle ourselves. Thor, take your bother's hand. You, mortal, go to the other side and take the other hand."
Loki's hands were limp, pale and cold but they held on to them, strong.
When it was done, Amora placed herself on top of Loki's bed and took the free hands of the two Avengers.
The glowing intensified.
So did the chanting.
The windows shook.
They thought, over and over again.
Loki is not a monster, he doesn't deserve this.
He doesn't deserve this.
He's not a monster.
And as the chanting became almost a scream, there was a explosion of light on the room.
Duuuhm.
The living room lost the contact with the improvised sick bay - all the signal, audio, video.
Thor and Bruce were thrown to the opposite walls by the sheer force of the spell.
Amora was floating on top of the bed, surrounded by a golden halo.
Floating.
And then it all decreased, the lighting, the halos, everything, and Amora descended into the floor. She smiled.
Thor got up, still a bit shaken and went near his brother's bed.
"Did it work?"
"Of course it did." the woman answered "but it will take him a while to gather the strength to awake once again. But fear not, we were succesful."
Thor looked at his brother's frame, hopeful. The rest of the Avengers appeared in the door, trying to know what had happened. Tony, Steve, Clint, Natasha - they saw with relief that no one had been hurt in that explosion of light. There Asgardians were sure weird.
"I thank you, Amora."
"Of course you do. And not only that, Thor. You owe now. Never forget that."
She looked around and started glowing.
"Must you leave so soon?" the thunderer asked.
"Now that I am here, I wish to see once again this realm's sights and charms. Give Loki my best, Thor, and never forget my words."
And in a flash of gold, she was gone, off to some new magical adventure.
"A bit shady, isn't she?" Mentioned Stark nonchalantly.
"Nevermind her," Steve interrupted "did it work, Thor?"
"She claims it did. I guess we will only see the veracity of her words as time passes."
Like the enchantress had said, Loki would need time to recover and awake again, even if the heavy weight of curse was indeed lifted. Well, if he needed time they would give him time. And hope for the best.
The hours passed and there was no change.
A whole day passed and Loki was still unconscious.
Yes, his vitals were better (or at least that was what the Doctor read in his machines) but Thor worried. Loki had been on the edge of death more than once, what if his energy had been completely spent? What if it had been to much for his brother's battered body to bear? He shuddered. He had so much apologizing to do. And Loki deserved another chance. He knew he did.
Some hours later, their mother appeared on Midgard.
"I convinced your father to let Loki serve the rest of his sentence her on Midgard, dear." she told her son. "He won't be able to return home, but at least Odin will not chase him anymore."
Thor smiled, waiting by his brother's bedside.
A couple of hours later, Steve joined them. They should all be happy, he said, Belveroth was gone, Bolton behind bars and now Odin wasn't hurting them anymore. This chapter was almost over. But it wouldn't be completely over until Loki opened his eyes again, he knew.
So they waited. And they waited.
Loki was on a prison of blood and ice and there were voices screaming at him while he writhed like the little monster he was.
He saw himself impaled with the bars of his own cell and knew this was only what he deserved, nothing else.
He screamed, screamed into the bloody night until his throat was red and ceased to function.
His blue hands fell into pieces to the floor while the saw all the people he knew - they were free, on the other side of the bars - looking at him with disgust.
His arms became iced crystal and fell onto the floor, breaking into a million little pieces.
It would continue until he was no more... until his head too became crystal and shattered into pieces.
And then, he would finally be free, not a prisoner anymore.
Just nothing.
It was the end, the last chapter of his wretched life that was now writing its final verses.
But then, as he could see the end so close, the cell became blurry and he was whole again.
There were voices and images, but so different from the ones he was used to. Coming to him now - finally breaking the last barrier.
Loki is not a monster, he doesn't deserve this, they said. And they meant it.
Images sent by Amora herself, to help him through.
Loki saw Thor, looking furious at his father.
"I will not live a day longer under the rule of the man who tortured my brother!"
He saw the good Captain.
"...wanted you to know of the brave acts Loki has performed while on earth... "
He saw the Doctor, looking sad and tired.
"... I was worried he'd be gone..."
And one unanimous thought with many voices, that echoed, echoed everywhere.
You don't deserve this.
You are not a monster.
You don't deserve this.
You are not a monster.
When he slowly opened his eyes again, Loki only saw only friendly faces. The Avengers, smiling, nodding at him.
"Took you long enough!" commented Stark.
"You made it." Added the Captain. "We're really proud of you."
It was different this time. This time, he had no doubt it was real. Even if it felt like a dream, a too-good dream, come to life.
His own family was there, too, his brother and mother. They hadn't abandoned him, hadn't left him to die. They still cared.
Next to him, Thor beamed.
"Welcome back, brother. Welcome back to life."
And then he said the sweetest words Loki had ever heard.
"Your days as a prisoner are finally over."
AN: Liked it? Not? I know it's not probably great, but it was necessary to give some closure to the story. Hope you didn't hate the magic scene, I will admit, Iused to watch Charmed. I almost threw a power of three line in there. Anyways, PLS, no flames. Flames burn the heart out of me (I love making references ehehehe). Only one chapter left, a sort of epilogue. Hope you've enjoyed!
Please leave a review after the beep. Beeeep!