Clint cursed as his arrow exploded harmlessly above the group of Svartálfar that had surrounded the god of Thunder. "Shit, doc, my arrows can't touch them," he yelled.
She turned back from where she'd been frying enemies in Loki's path. "What's up with that?"
"Thor's under there, he lost his hammer!"
"Shit." He grinned when he heard the curse fall from her lips. Her face frowned in concentration and she gasped. "God damn it all to hell! Nothing's happening."
"Some kind of shielding?" he guessed.
"Yeah, but…oh, no. Oh, Loki."
He followed her line of sight and saw the green and gold clad pain in the ass charging toward the pile up followed by a hugely overfed man with a beard that was bigger than his face. Loki no longer had the spear and his mike was off, but was shouting something and pointing at the mound of dark elves. A greenish haze formed around the group and seemed to stick to something invisible. "I think he's using some kind of magic on them, he's fine."
"Yes, but he had the chance to be the hero and save Asgard, and he gave it up to try to save Thor."
"Well, shit." Clint looked back toward the gate. An armored Amazon of a woman was now carrying the scepter. Somehow it had that longer spear handle on it now. The other Asgardians that had visited their tower were flanking her. "Some of the others are heading for the gate, they'll still get it shut."
"You don't understand, Clint," Dr. G said with a sob in her voice. "They would have had to release him if he were their hero. Now, now they might just blame him for all of this…oh God."
He turned to stare at her as she turned her attention to clearing enemies between the downed god of Thunder and the advance of Loki and the huge warrior accompanying him. "He…he gave that chance up?" he said, shocked at the realization.
"Yeah. He gave it up for the brother he barely acknowledges."
… …
Swinging his greatsword to devastating effect against the enemy, Heimdall shouted: "My liege, Thor is down!"
"I know it," the All-Father replied as he braced himself and thrust Gungnir into the belly of a leviathan. The Uru spear tore a gaping fissure in the beast's underside and slime along with an unholy meld of fleshy and mechanized parts began to fall from it. He nodded, satisfied that the construct would crash and 'die' and looked toward the gate. Loki was no longer headed toward it, though he'd been charging in that direction scant moments ago after the blue-clad mortal was stricken down and taken to safety. "Where is Loki?" he wondered aloud as he slashed Gungnir through a Svartálfar warrior, cleaving him in two at the mid-section.
"Headed for Thor," Heimdall returned. "Volstagg accompanies him."
He'd decided to recall the powerful gatekeeper from the Bifröst. His all-seeing eyes were more than valuable in battle, and with a gate open in the middle of Asgard, the likelihood of anyone attempting to enter via an only partially repaired bridge was small. Having the dark warrior at his side enabled him to keep track of all aspects of the battle at once. Odin disemboweled another enemy, one of the Chitauri this time, while he looked for Loki. His adopted son was carrying Sif's sword, by the look of it, and was wielding magic so powerful it glowed to the naked eye. If Loki had Sif's weapon…he spotted the greatest of their women warriors close to the gate. She now bore the scepter and had the other two of Thor's friends assisting her in reaching her goal. "Interesting," he mused, brushing aside a magical attack and returning one of his own.
"He chose to save Thor, my king. That is…significant," Heimdall rumbled, using his foot to push two skewered Chitauri off of his greatsword.
Odin smiled. "So it is. Perhaps his fiery-tempered Midgardian has healed more than she knows."
… …
Tony hooted in triumph as he burst through the gut of a second leviathan. The half-tech and half-flesh construct hurtled to the ground. "Oh shit, that's not good," he muttered as he saw it heading right towards the defending army. "Iron Man to the rescue!" he crowed, totally ignoring the fact that it was his handiwork that endangered them. He hit the side of the leviathan at full speed, changing the direction of its fall. It plowed into the ground just past the struggling masses of warriors and he twisted into a graceful curve to return to the battle.
"Iron Man, where the hell have you been?" Hawkeye snapped over the comm unit.
"In the bellies of space whales, Hawk, where else?"
"Loki needs backup, Thor is down, Cap is out of play."
Shit, go incommunicado for a minute and everything goes to hell. He looked around. Loki and some mountain of a warrior were at the perimeter of a large number of the Svartálfar. A green mist was settling into a shape that looked like a bubble surrounding their target. In the middle of it, he could see Thor, on his back and looking groggy, with a butt-ugly being that was not Chitauri, Svartálfar or anything else he'd ever seen standing over him with a spear, grinning demonically. That couldn't be good. "I see it."
He shifted position mid-air and hovered, sending a blast against the bubble. It bounced off and the whole damn thing lit up like a green Christmas bulb and caught the attention of his ugliness. "Stark, watch it," he heard Loki say over the comm. "He can send power directly into your head."
"What can I do to help?"
"Be ready when the magic falls…the field they've generated will disintegrate and the green mist will fall directly down on the enemy. Then you are clear to attack. Meanwhile, back off lest The Other target you!"
"Got it." He pulled back and hovered, checking out the rest of the battle. "Oh, who are you, gorgeous?" he muttered as he saw a tall woman rushing towards the gate with the Hardy Boys.
"Seriously, Tony? What would Pepper think?" Loki's snide tone broke through his admiring daze.
"Hey, I'm committed, not blind!" Tony grinned as Loki snickered. "Okay, let's see what we can do to clear them a path, Jarvis."
"Of course Anthony. May I suggest using the energy canon, targeting…there," his trusty AI told him as a targeting grid was displayed.
"Firing now; woo, doggy!" he shouted gleefully as the beam struck a sled and it careened into a wave of Chitauri already on the ground. "Nice one, J!"
"I exist to serve, Anthony."
"Shit, Loki, if we get out of this you are going to fix Jarvis or else."
"Idle threats do not concern me. I've almost got this field down. Can you see Thor?"
Tony spun in mid-air after clearing out another group of the enemy near the gate. "Yeah, he doesn't look too good. Shit. Hurry! That demonic bastard just used a spear on him and it actually penetrated." Tony gulped as he heard Loki howl incoherently over the comm. Energy crackled through the air and the green mist all but solidified. This was not looking good.
… …
Loki gathered his energy and threw it into the counter-spell. They could not be too late, he would not lose his brother, the only member of his so-called family that had never lied to him. The field started to fall, but there were nearly two dozen enemies between him and The Other. He charged forward, swinging the long sword. It clashed against the battleaxe wielded by a Svartálfar, the bastard twisted his weapon and the sword's blade broke. He grimaced and tossed it aside. "Never did like swords," he muttered. Unfortunately his knives were not good for this type of melee and he'd seriously drained himself of magic. "Stark, it's down, get back here!" he called into the comm's mike.
"On my way, Lokes."
Nearly tripping over a grounded Mjölnir, he cursed in several languages. If only he could use the damn thing. He saw The Other raise his spear and bring it down hard again. "No!" he screamed. "Just this once, please," he begged under his breath as he regained his balance and laid a hand on the leather wrapped handle. "I swear, I'll use it only to save Thor and then return it to him." Loki blinked in shock as the hammer moved and he gasped as it lifted. "Thank the gods."
Volstagg was swinging his four bladed war axe and taking down Svartálfar and Chitauri with equal gusto. The corpulent warrior's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when Loki launched himself forward, Mjölnir firmly in hand. "By Odin's beard, Loki!" the man shouted. "What miracle have you wrought?"
Loki ignored him, concentrating on reaching The Other before he brought that spear down in Thor's mid-section yet again. Their foes were falling like so much rotten timber as he struck left and right with his brother's rightful weapon. "You know I'm taking you to Thor, do you not?" he muttered as though the Uru hammer could hear him. He grinned. For all he knew, Odin's magic may have made the thing able to do so. Svartálfar were bursting into flame around him and he grinned as The Other staggered several paces to the side after being hit by one of Barton's explosive arrowheads. Finally, his path was clear and his fallen brother was before him.
"Dark Prince," The Other hissed menacingly. "I did not expect you to live."
Laughing, Loki approached warily. "I do what I want; after all your efforts to control me, to make me your tool, I would have thought you understood that much."
"Perhaps my information was faulty. The meng mein is not your vulnerable point?" the alien continued, lifting the spear as he closed back in on Thor.
"You forgot one thing, fool," Loki baited him in an effort to draw him away from Thor's broken form. "I'm not Æsir."
The Other snarled. "You will still beg for death!"
"Loki," he heard Stark's voice in the ear device. "What do you think will happen if we slam that chump between that hammer and Cap's shield?" He nodded silent agreement, not wanting to alert the enemy to their plan. "Cool deal. I'm on my way in…watch for me."
"I will beg favors from only one being in this life. And you are not that being," he said, smirking. He could see the unmistakable round shield being flown in at full speed, directly toward The Other's back. "I'd offer you the same threat, but there won't be enough left of you to beg for anything." He planted his feet firmly and began the arc that would bring Mjölnir in directly on The Other's midsection. "There won't be enough left of you for your Master to even hazard a guess as to what caused your demise."
"You think an Uru Hammer can finish me? You are a greater fool than I…"
… …
Kara was concentrating on igniting yet another Svartálfar when a tremendous explosion rocked the battlefield. Only Clint's quick grab saved her from a painful tumble off of the cliff side. "What the hell happened?" she gasped as she landed in his lap several feet back from the edge.
"Dunno," Clint said, breathing hard from the exertion. "Loki was swinging Thor's hammer, Stark was flying in with Cap's shield and then the world went crazy."
"Holy crap." She peered through the desolation and blinked as she realized that the gate had closed. "Wait, when did the gate close?"
"Just before the kaboom." He stood up and helped her to her feet. They stared out over the plain. Asgardian warriors were climbing to their feet. The surviving Svartálfar were scrambling to theirs and running like the hounds of hell were after them.
Kara smirked. "Oh dear. I don't think there's any place for them to run."
"Didn't Hogun and Fandral travel to us on the Bifröst?" Clint asked.
"Yes, but it was only partially repaired. Besides, they've got an awful lot of pissed off Æsir between them and it. If they have any brains at all they'll throw down their weapons and beg…oh crap." She hit her comm unit. "Tony, where are you?" Thor was lying motionless on the battlefield and his midsection was a bloody mess.
"Lying flat on my ass, trying to get functional again, that was a hell of a ride," he said.
"Shit. Clint, do you have any of those rappelling arrows? I need to get down there, pronto."
"Yeah, doc, I'm on it." Hawkeye stood near the edge to find a target while changing arrowheads and attaching the rappelling line. "Okay, got a spot." He took the shot and then looked around the ledge. She watched as he wound his end of the line several times around a sturdy rock formation and then tied it off in what looked to her to be some kind of marine knot. He pulled a small device out of the bottom of his quiver and hooked it over the line. "Okay, doc. Arms around my neck, lay against my back, and when I say let go, do it and flex your knees and be prepared to roll so you won't hurt yourself when you land."
"Oh man, I don't like this."
"You don't have to do it, it's your call."
"Yes, I do." She wrapped her arms around his neck as he instructed. Fortunately, Clint wasn't as tall as some of the other Avengers, so he only had to crouch a bit for her to get a firm hold. After testing her grip, he launched himself over the ledge. She held her breath to avoid screaming in his ear as the shock of being midair hit.
"Let go!" he yelled.
Kara loosed her grip and saw the ground approach rapidly. Flexing her knees may have helped, she wasn't sure, but she still hit hard before she rolled. "Oh God, that hurt," she moaned as she rolled to her knees and then staggered to her feet.
… …
Loki lifted his head and groaned. Everything hurt; everything. But, he wasn't dead. He looked up. Thor. No. Staggering to his feet he looked around. "Damnation," he muttered as he realized the impact had sent him flying several hundred meters. Mjölnir was still in his grip, but the hammer would no longer budge. "Fine, you did what was needed. I'll bring Thor to you…if he lives," he managed as his voice broke. A figure in gold shimmering scale armor chased with reds and oranges was picking her way through body parts. Kara. She was making her way to a small cleared area occupied by a prone body. Thor. As he determined everything was in working order, he began to run.
Kara reached his brother first and dropped her gauntlets on the ground and held her hands above Thor's meng mein. "Crap," she said distinctly. "Any Æsir out there, I need a volunteer, I need to do an energy transfer if you want your Prince to live," she yelled. He picked up his half stumbling pace and reached them before most of the warriors sprawled about had managed to climb to their feet.
"You were supposed to stay on the cliff where it was safe," he told her as he dropped to his knees on his brother's other side.
"Your brother wasn't supposed to get his meng mein trashed. And after what you gave up to save him, I wasn't about to sit up there in safety and freaking Let. Him. Die.," she snapped.
"Hmm, you saw that, did you?" Loki shook his head. "Well, I'm here, is this energy transfer thing what you and he did to save me?" She nodded. "Then it seems only right that you use my energy to save him."
"Fine, but lay down, it will hurt like you're being eviscerated," she warned.
"Been there, had that done to me, but no one gave me the tee shirt," he quipped as he stretched out and turned his face toward Thor's. "Hurry, love. His breathing is all but stopped."
"I'm hurrying, I…"
"Doc, what can I do to help?" Barton asked as he dropped down on his knees beside Kara.
"Oh, good. Clint, get your hands in here. See that mess? It's supposed to be all in one piece. Slip your hands around it and hold it together." She frowned at the archer as his face twisted in revulsion. "Yes, I know, totally gross. This is why I didn't go to med school. Suck it up and deal."
"Yeah, sure. It's just a little blood…and guts. Geez, literally guts. Shit, I usually do my killing from a distance, this, damn." The mortal's complexion was turning distinctly gray.
"If you must get sick, Barton, please do your best to turn away from my brother's wounds," he asked drily.
"Don't see you doing this," Barton snapped.
"Hush, both of you. He can't, Clint. Loki is going to be in too much pain in just a second."
The promised pain began as he felt a pull on his energy from the hand she'd laid on his abdomen after shifting to kneel between him and Thor. He hissed as the sharp tearing sensation grew and then exploded into hideous agony. Is this what Thor had endured for him? No wonder his lady had been angry with the way he'd treated his brother. "Is it…helping?" he managed.
"Yes, I can see it starting to knit together, hang in there, just a little bit more," she promised.
He stared at Thor's too still face, willing him to take a deeper breath, to blink, something to show he was no longer so close to death. Finally, his patience was rewarded as his brother moaned. "Did you hear that?" he asked.
"I heard it," she told him with a small smile. "And the meng mein is almost…" he heard no more as the pain overwhelmed him.
… …
…"whole again," she told Loki, then frowned. "Loki? Oh crap, he passed out. I was afraid of that."
"Don't look now," Clint murmured. "Here comes daddy dearest."
"Lovely, just when I've got two unconscious Princes of Asgard on my hands. This is not going to endear me to the man."
"Shit, doc. You've saved both their lives, he can just get the fuck over it."
"Get over what, young man?" the imposing one-eyed figure clad in gold armor asked.
"Uh, nothing, sir," Clint managed to say crisply.
She looked the King of Asgard up and down and then glanced at a grim looking dark-skinned man , also armored in gold, standing behind Odin with hands resting on the grip of a huge by any standards sword. The dark bearded man's eyes looked…odd. They were an almost shimmering gold and didn't seem to focus on any one thing, though she had the feeling that he saw not only her but…oh. "Heimdall, I presume?" she asked quietly.
The all-seeing god nodded. "Kara Gunnarssen, known as Hellbringer," he spoke with a voice that sounded like a small earthquake. "Well met."
"Likewise, I'm sure," she said, doing her best not to shake in fear. Kara looked down at the brothers and then up at their father. "They'll be fine, your Majesty," she told him. "Thor is healing quickly now that we've got his meng mein repaired. Loki is just unconscious because he donated energy to heal his brother." She winced. "It's a rather painful process. Thor passed out when he donated energy to save Loki, so we were expecting it."
The king nodded and his lips twitched a bit and his sole visible eye crinkled. "I thank you, healer," he said. "I feared I would lose one or both of them this day."
"It was a near thing, If Loki hadn't taken out that son of a bitch alien when he did, it would have turned out very differently. From his description while he was waiting to be recalled here, I think that was the same one that tortured him."
"Thor told me of the extent of Loki's injuries. Asgard could not have saved him."
"Humph. Then it's a damn good thing he came to Earth when he escaped instead of here."She glared down at the ground, trying to take a firmer hold on her temper, not to mention her tongue. Just seeing these damn people up close was pissing her off.
"So, my lady. Need I fear your wrath while you abide in my realm?" Odin asked.
Oh. Crap. Yep, he hadn't forgotten. "No, I believe my warning applied only if you came to Earth." The damn man started laughing. Oh for pity's sake. Heimdall was chuckling as well. She ground her teeth in frustration at the condescending sound. "I'm still not happy with you, any of you. But it would be a terrible abuse of hospitality for me to do anything about it here," she snapped.
"Kara, must you?" Loki groaned.
She quickly leaned over him and checked his energy levels. "You're almost back to normal, thank God." Looking up at the others she said, "Figure of speech. It's something we're raised saying, it doesn't mean anything."
"Of course not, my lady," Odin said, still smiling.
Loki was shaking his head. "How long was I out?" he asked.
"Only a few minutes. You didn't miss anything."
… …
He snorted. "No, just you doing your best to ruin any chance you might have…" he trailed off and eyed the All-Father. "Never mind." He pushed himself up to a sitting position and turned to look at Thor. "How is he?"
"Improving," Kara told him. She leaned over and pulled the ruined armor away from his brother's abdomen. "Even the muscle and skin are starting to come together a bit. I know you said that's not normal, it's too fast, but I think it's a direct result of the energy transference."
"Likely so," he agreed.
"You're going to have a matching set of scars."
He looked down at his own stomach. "So we are. It matters not. He's alive and I am glad of it. If he had not survived I would have borne the blame for that as well."
"No, Loki," Odin said. "This is not on your head."
"Tell that to the tribunal, All-Father," he spat. "It is all my fault and you know it. Had I never been thrown…" His eyes closed as he remembered what Kara had told him. "If I had never…fallen into the Void, none of this would ever have happened. There is no one else to blame." He glanced sharply at Kara who was frowning fiercely. "Do not start, love," he said, hoping to forestall a rant about the treatment he'd received from his 'family'. "Please." He let out a relieved huff as she subsided.
He looked up again as Odin took a knee beside them. "I think there is much blame to go around and many to whom it should spread. But for now, we will see to our wounded, and find a way to thank your friends for their timely assistance, hmm?"
"Yes, my liege," he managed tiredly.
… …
Tony trudged toward the gold-armored figures in the middle of the battlefield. His power levels were down to fifteen percent so he'd flipped up his face plate and shut down all systems not involved with walking and was making his way on foot. With the damage Thor had taken, he seriously doubted he'd get juiced up that way. "Hey, Fandral, what's shaking?" he asked as the dandified Asgardian…oops, Æsir, looked at him as he stopped beside him and Hogun…and the Amazonian beauty.
"The ground has stopped shaking, Stark," he said, sounding confused.
"Heh, yeah. Sure as hell didn't expect that. Though I guess I should have. Last time that hammer hit Cap's shield the concussive wave took out a good part of a forest. Oh well, all the better to kill homicidal demonic things with. So, you going to introduce me to your friend?" he said, nodding toward the woman.
Fandral frowned. "Oh, of course, my apologies." He turned to the black-haired beauty. "Lady Sif, may I present Tony Stark, the Man of Iron, one of the Avengers and a good friend of Thor." Turning back to him, Fandral continued. "Tony Stark, may I present one of Asgard's finest warriors, the Lady Sif."
"Charmed, totally," Tony said, holding out an armored hand. The woman looked at it like it was something disgusting. He decided to blame it on cultural differences. "Uh, in my world, when two people who are allies meet for the first time, they touch hands to show they are allies and not enemies," he told her.
"I know the custom," she said. "However, the intent is for the hand to be empty of weapons. You have used that armor as a weapon to great effect."
He winced. "Right. Sorry. It's a total pain in the…uh, it's really difficult to get on and off when the suit's power levels are so low. I'll take a rain check on that, 'kay?" She frowned at him. "Ah, never mind. Modern colloquialism. I'll just go check on Thor and Loki." He sighed and continued on to the center of the battlefield.
"Stark!" he heard a voice call. "Tony!" He stopped and saw Cap coming through the mess on the ground using some kind of kinky looking crutches. His leg was strapped into some kind of leather-look cast. Interesting.
"Very good look for you, gimpy," he teased. "I knew you were a BDSM kind of guy."
"BD what?" Steve asked.
"Heh, never mind. I take it you've had the leg worked on."
"Yes, Loki's mom and one of the other healers came for me. The bone's set and everything, I just need to keep my weight off of it for a few days."
"Not too shabby. I was heading over to see if Thor made it. Or Loki for that matter, he went flying when the irresistible force met your immovable object."
"Huh?"
Tony sighed. "When your shield hit Thor's hammer with the bad guy in between."
"Oh. Right. That must have been a mess."
Holding up the gore and slime stained shield, Tony nodded. "Yeah, you could say that. I scraped off the worst of it, but, well, didn't have much to work with."
Steve paled. "Wow, that's…that's gory." He shrugged. "Good to know I could still help a bit, even while I was down and out."
"That's the spirit. Let's go find our team."
… …
Author's Note: I'm going to try to get in one more chapter before Monday, but no promises. It's the start of a new semester at the college I'm on staff with and I work a lot of overtime the first week or so. If I can't get a new chapter in by Sunday night, it will likely be a week before I can pick this up again. Apologies in advance!
Thanks again for all of your kind comments/reviews and messages. While I don't have enough time between work and my family to respond to reviews unless you hit on something extremely important, I do respond promptly to all PMs.
