A/N: I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update, but here it is, chapter twenty-five of A Brewing Storm. I do not own anything except for the plot and any OCS. Please leave a review! -Maiden of the Heavens (MOTH)
Saving One's Own Blood
Thor made his way past the dining hall. He hesitated at the massive oak doors for a moment. He could hear their laughter echoing off the walls, and the clatter of plates, goblets, and silverware. He could also hear a couple of giggling girls, which meant that Fandral was busy entertaining some poor innocent maidens to one of his many tales of glory. Thor rolled his eyes and was about to walk past the door, when Loki stopped him, a thin hand on his broad shoulder.
"Think of it this way brother, they will be aiding you, by distracting Desak while I free Eri. It will give me more time to rescue her." Loki said, their blue eyes locked.
Thor hesitated a moment before he could reply to his adopted brother. "Loki, I shall not use my friends as bait for the God-slayer..."
The Trickster let out a sigh. "bait, distraction. Whatever it is, you want to call those bumbling fools, you call warriors. We will still need more then just you and I to get Eri free and a way from Desak."
Grey clouds began to gather above them, thunder roared loudly, and lightning streaked the sky. Thor threw open the doors of the dining hall, and entered. The serving maids that were giggling at Fandral's overexcited tale of heroics, scrambled from his lap and fled from the large space back to the kitchens. Fandral frowned and looked over at the Crown Prince of Asgard, Voltstagg stopped stuffing his face with food, long enough to swallow it down with a goblet of wine. Hogan looked up from the book, he had been reading and waited patiently for Thor to say what was making cause the skies to storm. Thor's face looked far more grim then his own.
"What is troubling you my friend? Has Sif given you back the keys to your home?" Fandral questioned, while Volstagg began stuffing himself again with a rather large piece of mutton. Loki merely rolled his eyes of course, the one warrior who could not keep himself from any woman, would think that the Crown Prince of Asgard would come to him for help if it was problems with Sif.
"No, you arrogant-minded imbecile, Eri has been kidnapped by the God-slayer, Desak. And my brother, obviously not thinking clearly, as come to you three for aid in seeing her rescued with her soul still intact, and not as a lifeless corpse." Loki retorted, annoyance clear in his words. The storm that Thor had manifested above them still raging.
Hogan launched to his feet, Volstagg wiped away the crumbs and bits from his meal away from his mouth before he also stood. Fandral was the last to stand, his face was slightly red with embarrassment. "Of course, we shall be glad to aid you." Fandral said with a grin. "We shall make sure the Princess of Asgard is returned to her Motherland."
The portal that Loki created in order to get them to where Desak had decided to hide, left the Warriors Three with the world spinning before them and they were not so steady on their feet. Thor already had his hammer his hand, and seemed to be steady on his feet. The storm in his eyes showing anger, fear, and worry. Fear and worry for his daughter, the anger toward Desak. He was nothing but a coward that would be shown the errors of his ways, with the cost of his life at Thor's hammer. The sky was gray and an acid-like rain had eaten away most of the trees and other vegetation. It merely plunked off of their armor like an annoying insect. Crows flew in the air, their bodies making sizzling noises against the rain, as they began to lose feathers, skin, and important body parts. A one-eyed crow flew toward them only to become nothing but a skeleton in mere moments at Loki's feet. The God of Thunder scanned the rotting world, to see the only place were Desak could be hold away safely from the dangerous precipitation outside. A castle, that was destroyed and barely standing with what stones were left to makeup its walls, stood in the distant.
The Trickster stepped forward and looked toward Thor. "I shall get Eri to safety, while you and the Warriors Three keep Desak occupied." With those final words he disappeared in a flash of light, teleporting away from them and into the depths of the ruined castle.
It took Thor only moments to rip the rotting wooden doors off of their rusted hinges and into the foyer, where Desak was waiting on a throne made from animal skeletons and antlers. The God-slayer grinned at the Asgardins. "So you have finally come, I was afraid that you did not care for your daughter, Thor. I see that I was wrong. Your heart is not made of stone after all."
Thor lunged toward Desak, hammer raised to strike a mighty blow, only for him to have to fly out of the way, moments before getting hit by the red lasers that came from Desak's bloodthirsty eyes. The spot where the God-slayer had hit now a smoking black crater. Desak let out a cry of rage as one Valstagg's axes hit him in the hand, nearly severing it from his arm. Fandral had almost sliced some of his leg, only for the hid sword to be turned into a crumpled piece of metal. He was then tossed aside like a rag-doll, landing against the all ready crumbled wall, as many stones piled on top of his motionless body. Voltstagg rushed over to begin digging through the rubble, leaving only Hogan and Thor to fend of Desak's attacks.
Loki made his way down the steps of the dungeon, having conjured an orb of light to guide his way in the pitch-black darkness. Once he was on the final step, he stopped, only to hear ragged and painful breathing coming near the only wall that was still intact. He stepped toward the sound, only for his eyes to widen in the horror that was before him. Eri was bloodied and beaten. Her left eye swollen completely shut and bruised. Both of her hand hands and fingers were broken and at impossible angles. The right side of her face was all black and blue. One of her arms had been dislocated, and one of her feet had been broken. The back of head was crusted with old and dried blood. She looked dead already, her body thin enough to see bone, and her lips cracked and bleeding. Loki conjured up another spell, as the chains began to slowly melt away, and he gently lifted her into his arms. This was his niece, broken and battered, and on the brink of death. She looked up at him, her one good eye watering up with tears.
"P-Please make it stop..." she cried, her voice barely audible. "P-Please...J-Just make the pain stop...J-Just kill me already...P-Please..."
Loki hushed her, and cradling her against his chest, he swept his hand across her face, as she slipped into what he could only hope was a peaceful sleep. Dust from the floor above began to rain down on top of the pair of Asgardians as he teleported back up the steps of the dungeons and into the foyer. He stood their, witnessing as Desak's body was turned into pieces of rock and ash from Thor's hammer. One crying out in fury, the other in defeat. The final blow distinguishing the God-slayer from existence.
The God of Thunder turned and looked at Loki and then to his daughter, that was cradled in his brother's arms. His eyes, that were prickling with tears, asked the question, that was pining to ask, but could not bring himself to say. Loki only shook his head, and answered. "She is not dead. Nearly, and at the brink..."
The battered company known as the Warriors Three made their way to Asgard through another portal, while Loki opened up an entirely separate one for the Crown Prince of Asgard and his daughter, that was now being held against his armored chest.
To say the least, the doctors in the emergency center of New York's hospital all raised eyebrows as man known to them as Donald Blake, a Professor of Norse Mythology at the local community college, rushed in in full body armor, his daughter in his arms. Loki did not stop his brother from pacing up and down the hall of the waiting room as they waited for news on Eri's condition. The Trickster merely flipped through old magazines with mild curiosity and then looked up as the other Avengers arrived. They glared at Loki with hatred, but he only ignored them. For once the Trickster was not trying to enslave all of their pathetic race, they should have of been grateful. He looked up from the magazine page he was flipping, to see a redheaded teenager, almost an adult, standing in front of Thor rambling off a million questions at once, worry was glistening in his gray eyes. Thor patiently answered them, while the millionaire known as Tony Stark was on his cellphone, trying to get the best doctors in the country to come and help save what remained of Eri's life. A blonde hair boy was standing next to a red-haired girl with freckles across her face along with guilt and fear. Her green eyes were glistening with tears, and Loki merely raised an eyebrow at her when she sat down next to him, seeming nervous.
"I-Is Eri okay?" she asked very quietly.
Loki scoffed. "Okay" was not the word he would use in this type of situation. "She is not dead, if that is what you are asking. You are all acting as if we should be preparing for her funeral, she will live through this. If she does not, then I see no reason that I should call her my niece." Before Katherine Peterson could stand, the Trickster spoke once more. "You should feel lucky that Eri still even lives."