Four months ago when I first wrote this ending, it made perfect sense to me. Now, I'm not happy with it at all. So I rewrote the ending. For those of you who are like me and hate the original ending, I hope you like this one better! Enjoy!
Chapter 15 (Alternate Ending)
Just after 7:00 that evening, Ilia and his men pulled up outside the abandoned warehouse where Nova was supposed to meet with the B-Streeters. Another one of his men had been watching it and reported when she, Lev, Viktor, Barak, and three of her bodyguards had shown up. Shortly after that, four B-Streeters had arrived. Now they were all inside. Just sitting ducks waiting for him and his allies to put them down. Three cars full of Norteños and four SUVs carrying the triad men were right behind him.
There were four vehicles parked in front of the warehouse, confirming the presence of people inside. After conferring with his lookout, he knew he had them. He could almost taste the sweet success of victory.
They spread out and a group of each took an entrance. On command, they all burst in at the same time, surprising the small group in the middle of the warehouse. They opened fire and advance on the group, who pulled their guns and returned fire. Determined to survive, Ilia ducked behind some wooden crates to wait it out. They really didn't need him, there were enough to take care of Nova and her crew without him putting his life on the line. His men and their allies fired on the group until they ran out of bullets in their magazines.
When Ilia peeked over the crate, Nova and her people were in a bloody pile in the center. Ilia crept out of his hiding spot and joined the others as they scoured the bodies to ensure there were no survivors. In his head, Ilia was already celebrating.
Suddenly, the pile of bodies disappeared, and flood lights shown on them from the perimeter of the warehouse, blinding them.
Nova's voice floated to them from beyond the lights, "you always were an idiot Ilia. Did you really think it would be this easy?"
What the hell was happening? "You Bitch!" he screamed at her. "You don't deserve to run this business, you worthless slut!"
Her laughter echoed through the building. "Reduced to name calling like a child on the playground. That's why I would never date you. You were too pathetic."
Ilia's blood boiled at her insults. That bitch always thought she was better than him just because of her daddy. "Come out here and say that to my face!" he screamed, spittle flying.
There was no answer except the sounds of bullets being chambered.
"I've had enough of this asshole," Nova told Lev and Viktor, checking that the safety was off on her gun. "Kill them all."
Lev gave the signal and they open fired on the men in the middle of the warehouse and all hell broke loose. There were a lot more people in the warehouse than Ilia knew about. They had arrived over an hour early and parked several blocks away. Nova alone had fifteen men, including Lev, Viktor, and Barak. The Los Zelas man, Juaquin, had brought ten men and the new leader of the B-Street Boys had brought eight. Loki and his two companions brought their total up to thirty-nine, making the two groups almost evenly matched.
But Nova had Loki on her side, and he was the master of illusion. It was his illusion of her and a smaller group that brought Ilia and his men in guns blazing and drew them into the center of the warehouse so they could be easily targeted. Now, Loki used his skills to multiply their numbers and confuse their enemy even more. Ilia and his people were wasting bullets on targets that weren't even there.
The warehouse was in mass confusion; bullets flying and people running everywhere. Nova saw Ilia duck behind some crates and took off after him. There was no way she was going to let him get away. A statement had to be made, a line drawn. Nobody fucks with her business and lives. She skirted the edge of the fight, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. One of the triad's men had gotten smart and ordered his guys to shoot out the flood lamps. Some of the Norteños had followed suit and now only about a third of the lamps were still working.
She made it to a position where she could just make out Ilia behind the crates and started to creep closer to get a clear shot. She aimed for the back of his head and was about to pull the trigger, when a movement at one of the doors caught her eye. It was Dax and four other men slipping in the door and making their way towards the others. She was about to call a warning out to her men, when the cold, hard barrel of a gun touched the back of her head.
"Drop your gun," Ilia ordered her.
Not having a choice, she allowed her gun to fall to the floor. Ilia grabbed her arm in a painful grip and spun her around to face him.
"Now, who's the idiot?" he sneered at her and put the gun against her head just above her eyes.
Nova only saw a blur of green, then Ilia dropped the gun and looked at her in incomprehension. In the middle of his chest protruded the handle of a dagger, a growing stain of blood turning his blue shirt dark red. His lips moved, but no sound came out as he collapsed, dead at her feet.
Loki spun her to face him, "are you alright?"
She nodded, then said, "I just saw Dax come in."
"Who?" he asked, not understanding.
"The Chitauri," she explained. Ducking behind the crated for cover, she scanned the warehouse. "There!" she pointed. "That's him."
Loki smiled and gave her a quick, hard kiss, "thanks!" Then he was running towards where she had pointed. She smiled at his back and turned to shoot a member of the triad as he ran in front of the crates. The number of people still standing was definitely smaller, the bodies on the floor piling up. They had to hurry up and end this. Her police connections could only slow down the response for so long.
She looked around and located Lev pinned down behind a crate by three Norteños. All her other men and allies nearby were occupied and could not go to his aid. As she started towards him, she saw him take a bullet to the shoulder and drop to the ground.
Fear gripped her such as she had not felt since she was a little girl. She was not going to lose Lev. He had always been there for her and there was none that she trusted more. She took off straight through the mass of bodies and bullets towards him shooting anyone unlucky enough to get in her way. She was fast running out of ammo, but there were guns scattered on the floor where they had been dropped as their owners went down. She paused long enough to snatch up a Desert Eagle by the body of a member of the Triad.
Coming up on their left side, she shot the first man before they realized she was there and used his body as a shield when the man beside him turned his fire on her. He, too, went down with two well-placed bullets to the chest, leaving only two more to deal with. Dropping her human shield, Nova dashed to the nearest crate and dove behind it. A bullet clipped the crate near her head, and she caught a spray of splinters on the side of her face. They burned, but with adrenalin pumping through her, they didn't slow her down much.
From her vantage point, she could see Lev behind his crate struggling to reach the gun he had dropped. Closing her eyes for a brief prayer of thanks, Nova fired off a round to keep the Norteños focused on her and buy Lev time.
On the other side of warehouse, one of the imposters raised his energy weapon and targeted Loki with it. Braggi yelled a warning and he turned just in time to duck out of the way. The blast from the weapon knocked another of the flood lights instead. Loki stabbed the Chitauri several times with his daggers and it fell at his feet. Then he turned towards the second one and engaged it, slashing its throat with one flash of his dagger.
Loki was thinking that these Chitauri were not the cream of the crop, that was probably why they weren't part of either of the battles that the rest of their race had perished in. They were just too easy to dispatch. But he still needed to take out their leader. Loki looked around but couldn't find him.
Nova had distracted the Norteños long enough for Lev to reach his gun and sit up behind the crate. He looked over at Nova behind hers and she held up two fingers indicating how many were left shooting at them and then their relative locations. Lev motioned back that he would take the one closest to him and she nodded and did a count with her fingers. On three, both of them jumped up and fired on their respective targets, watching with satisfaction as both collapsed to the floor.
Nova hurried over to Lev. "Are you okay?"
"I think it went clean through. I'll be okay for now," he answered. "Let's finish this and get the hell out of here."
She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and looked over the crate at the action around them. The body count was high; she was down by at least a third of her men and allies, but the others were much worse off. She could only identify about six or seven of them left and they were pinned down by the majority of her men.
She was about to stand and join them when a large, clawed hand clamped down on her shoulder.
"I've got you now," the leader of the Chitauri growled in her ear as he hauled her to her feet and drug her out from behind the protection of the crate.
On the other side, Loki froze as he saw the Chitauri dragging Nova out into the open, his deadly claws too close to her vulnerable neck and his weapon pointed towards her people. He had dropped his disguise and no longer looked human.
"ENOUGH!" he roared, the sound being amplified and echoed by the empty interior of the warehouse.
Nova's men instantly froze, and her allies followed suit. The warehouse became eerily quiet.
"Put down your weapons, or I will rip this bitch's head off."
One by one, Nova's men complied, but the men from Las Zelas looked to Juaquin.
He shook his head, "she's not my boss. I don't care what you do with her," he sneered at the Chitauri.
The new leader of the B-Street boys also shook his head, "me neither."
The Chitauri squeezed Nova's neck and she made a choking noise and began to struggle but she was too small and weak to do any good. The Chitauri grinned showing his teeth and lifter her off the ground with his arm.
Loki started forward, but there was a sharp report that echoed through the quiet building. From behind the Chitauri, Loki saw Lev, one arm hanging at his side, the other holding a gun that he had just shot the alien with.
The Chitauri roared in anger, dropped Nova, and spun to confront Lev. Loki took advantage of the distraction to sprint towards Nova with the intention of getting her out of harm's way. But Nova had other plans. When the alien dropped her, she fell and rolled free of his feet and to where she had seen a gun laying on the floor just a few feet away. Grabbing the gun, she sprang up into a crouch and fired at the Chitauri's back, emptying the bullets remaining in the clip.
Between her shots and Lev's, they managed to slow the creature down, but not stop it. Braggi leapt between it and Lev and managed to knock the weapon out of the Chitauri's hand then circled it looking for an opening. At Loki's yell, they both froze and turned towards him. He sprinted to where they were standing, shoving any human that got in his way roughly aside.
The Chitauri dropped his disguise and changed back into its true form and screamed a challenge at the oncoming Asgardian, holding its long sharp claws out, ready to slash and maim. Loki threw himself at the Chitauri and it swiped at him, but at the last instant, Loki darted to the side and ducked under its arm, striking out with his dagger and leaving a long gash in its side.
The Chitauri swung around to face Loki, but even though it was taller and more muscular than him, it was slightly slower, and Loki was buried two of his daggers deep into its back, before dodging out of the way of its claws. His eyes blazing, he threw two more is quick succession, one reaching its mark in the Chitauri's midsection, too low to be lethal, but adding to the damage being inflicted. In their native forms, Chitauri were tough and hard to kill. Armed with only his daggers, Loki would have to get in past its long claws and land a direct hit to something vital, like its brain or heart, both encased in thick, boney armor. He would have to rely on his speed, stamina, and illusions to wear down the Chitauri and wait for his chance to strike.
Two additional versions of him appeared and began to circle the Chitauri. It watched warily, looking for a clue to indicate which one of the three was real. One of the Loki's lunged towards its exposed side and it swung its long arm to block, another Loki went low, trying to eviscerate, and it blocked with the other arm. Both arms passed through the apparitions and crossed in front of its body, the third Loki leaped forward and used its crossed arms as a step to vault up and over its head, striking at its throat as he flipped over. The Chitauri was ready, knowing this was the real version of Loki and slammed its fists into him as he struck to send him flying across the space.
It roared with surprise when its fists met only air. The real Loki appeared behind it and agilely leapt onto its back, slashing two daggers deep across its exposed throat, nearly severing its head, before jumping clear. The Chitauri dropped to its knees, grey blood gushing from the fatal wound, but did not collapse. It struggled to climb back to its feet and face Loki once again.
Suddenly, a spray of bullets caught the Chitauri, sending chunks of grey flesh and gore flying. Viktor, Juaquin, and their men had stepped up to either side of Loki, emptying their magazines into the creature. When they ran out of ammo, the warehouse fell eerily silent. The Chituari chuffed once, then fell forward onto the floor and didn't move again.
Nova shakily stood and surveyed the warehouse. The few Norteños and Triad members that were still alive were fleeing and her people made no move to stop them. A shadow fell across her line of sight and she looked up into a pair of concerned green eyes as Loki stepped close and pulled her into his arms. She rested her face on his chest and grimaced at the sting of the wounds from the splinters.
"I'm getting blood all over your pretty clothes," she whispered.
He chuckled and held her to him. "I'll get more," he told her gently as he pushed her hair out of her face.
"We need to get out of here before the police arrive," Viktor said from behind her.
She pushed away from Loki, "Okay, let's go. Leave the bodies. The police will think it was a fight between them and the aliens."