Hello, everyone, and welcome back for part 2 of chapter eight! Last we left off, Savvy was in a bit of a tight spot, and everyone was freaking out. Let's see where this goes...

DISCLAIMERS!

Neither I nor Wolf21Friend own Marvel or its affiliates. We only own the OCs, this fanfiction, and the plot devices we add in. Wolf21Friend owns Lydia. I own Savannah, and a few more OCs of mine will show up later.

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'Come on, Savannah, you can make it through this..you have to.' Loki thought. They were almost back at NYC, but Loki could see that the pulsing veins of magic on her arms were extending further and further away from where her arm guards were. By the time they'd entered the airspace above the city, some of the veins had reached her shoulders and were creeping up her neck.

Loki could vaguely hear Steve and Tony chatting in the background but his mind was tuning them out. He was worrying, because he knew this wasn't normal at all. Why did this have to happen to her? Especially so young...

Then, he felt that the jet was landing. They'd finally arrived. Steve ended the call with Tony and came over to Loki, putting a hand on his shoulder as he said, "Do you want to carry her inside?"

Loki instantly nodded and picked Savannah up, heading straight for the exit. When he stepped into the doors, he was met with Tony and Dr. Strange, who instantly came up to him.

"This is worse than I thought. We need to get her to the medical bay. Now." Strange said.

"Jarvis! Get that elevator here, now!" Tony called out to the AI as they headed straight for the elevator doors.

"Clint, with me," Steve said, heading for the offices. "We need to handle Fury."

Clint sighed heavily. "Yay..." he said with as much sarcasm as he could manage.

Meanwhile, the others had gotten Savannah into the elevator and were heading down to the medical lab. During that time, the magical veins had started reaching the bottom edge of Savannah's face.

The second the elevator doors opened, the team was moving. Loki got her to a medical bed. Dr. Strange tries to get the armguards off but to no avail. Sighing heavily, he said, "I'm going to have to wake her up… There's something enchanted where only she can take them off."

Dr. Strange then moves a hand to hover over Savannah's face and chants something under his breath to wake her up. "Savannah. I need you to get your armguards off. We're trying to save your life."

After a few minutes, there was a weak moan from Savannah as her eyes opened just barely. When she spoke, her weak voice was barely audible. "Wh… who…?"

"I am Dr. Strange. I am here to help you, but I need you to help me help you. Your arm guards need to be removed and you are the only one able to do so." Savannah didn't move for a few minutes, but then the fingers of her hands twitched, and the arm guards unlatched so that they could be lifted away from her forearms.

As soon as the arm guards were set off to the side, Dr. Strange got right back to work on reversing the magic's effects. Her forearms were covered in a veritable web of thick magical veins that were branching out towards the rest of her body, and the skin that had previously been hidden by the magical accessories was ghostly pale even in comparison with the rest of her currently pale skin. It was also easy to notice that it was where the source was due to the super dense webbing around her forearms.

While Strange was busy reversing the magical damage, Natasha finally comes into the lab. "Stairs suck." Was all she said.

Bruce arrived too, going straight to where the others were. "How is she?"

"Bad. Real bad." Tony told, a frown on his face. Then he noticed something. "Wait, where's Thor and Lydia? Shouldn't they know as well?"

"Uh… they're… occupied…"

Natasha sighed. "I'll go get them," she said, and disappeared from the lab. 10 minutes later, she re-enters the lab. "They'll be down in a few," she said with a smirk.

"I swear, you must be magic to be able to do these things," Bruce said, shaking his head.

"It's the reactions that I live for, Bruce."

Moments later, Thor and Lydia enter, though they're looking a little worse for wear. Thor was only wearing his jeans, while Lydia was sporting his shirt and boxers. It was clear they had rushed straight after being interrupted, as Lydia paid no attention to the fact that her hair is still mussed up.

"What happened." Thor demanded as he saw Savannah on the table, and headed straight over. Lydia joins the others knowing Strange will need room to work.

After about half an hour, thankfully, Strange was able to get the spread of the magical damage under control. It was no longer working its way further across her body, and her healing factor was starting to slowly catch up again and push the damage back.

"I got it to where the healing factor of hers will get rid of the damage. But I'm going to stick around for a while until it's completely gone to be sure," Dr. Strange explains.

"What do you think caused this to finally happen?" Bruce asked, concerned. "From what she's told us, she's been using an increasing number of magical gemstones for thirteen years now…"

Loki sighed heavily from his spot next to the bed. "She never used the Power Stone until today, and it had a terrible repercussion."

Then, Steve and Clint came down with Fury behind them. Steve cast a glare at Thor for a moment before focusing on what was more important at the moment. "Dr. Strange… would this possibly be explained by the fact that Surtur gave her gems without care for their uses or power levels?"

"That would, actually. And I highly doubt she was trained in magic correctly to be able to handle the gemstones."

"How can we keep this from happening again?"

"Two options. She never touches the gems again. Or, she learns magic the proper way, and works her way up with the gemstones, the proper way. But she will not be able to handle that Power Stone with the other gemstones."

Steve was a little quiet as he considered this. Then he said, "I remember that Savannah said she was dizzy for the first two days after getting the Power Stone before she knew what it was… but then it went away. Could it be possible that her body was adjusting to the power level, but then she used it before she was ready to use it?"

"Possibly. Since she has a history of magic, she's one of the few beings who would be able to handle the Infinity Stones."

"Does her healing factor have something to do with that?"

"It's certainly a factor that helps but it's not the sole reason."

"If she wants to keep using magic… would you be able to teach her?"

"Of course."

While Steve and Strange were talking, Lydia figures it would probably be best if she changed into more decent clothes. So she and Thor just calmly left the lab and headed for the elevators.

Bruce then saw how tense Loki looked. "Hey, you okay?"

Loki sighed. "When she collapsed like that... I got scared."

"You're not used to that, are you?"

"No. I haven't seen something like this in a long time."

"You're pretty attached to her, aren't you?" Bruce asked, a knowing look in his eyes.

Loki glared at him for a moment before nodding his head. "Yeah."

"I can tell. You think nobody's watching… but some of us have seen how you look at Savannah when you think she won't notice," Bruce told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "She's a good kid…"

Loki had to smile at that. "She sure is, Bruce. She sure is."

"Don't give up on her, got it? She's a fighter, that much is for sure… and from what I've heard about her father, it's extremely hard to kill a Howlette."

With a chuckle, Loki nodded in acknowledgment before falling silent again. Tony sighed and realized it was past lunchtime. "Anyone want anything? I'm paying."

"I'll take a shawarma burrito," Steve said, and Bruce agreed.

"I'll take whatever," Natasha told Tony as he walked out of the lab.

Then, Cap realized something. "Doctor, would the fact that Savannah hasn't been at full health for a while add to the strain the magic had on her? She's severely underweight…"

"Yes. For magic to work well, the user has to be 100%. It weighs on you if you're sick or injured. With Savannah's condition, it actually helped aid the damage more than it did her. She's got a long road to recovery ahead of her, but I believe she will make it."

A short while later, the lunch delivery came, and the others were all eating while Loki stayed at Savannah's bedside. Then, he noticed her eyes opening again, and she weakly moved her hand towards him. Loki was quick to grab hold of her hand, holding onto it with a firm grip.

"I'm here, Little One. Don't worry, I'm here..."

"Don't… don't go…" she said in a barely-audible whisper, weakly curling her fingers around his hand.

"Wouldn't dream of it."