- Chapter 67 -

Alarm turned Odin to face Frey. He didn't bother to ask if he'd known. His damnable brother-by-law was smiling at him, that wolfish grin.

"I did tell you. Jay is a very special boy," Frey said softly. His smile was still wickedly sharp.

As he turned back to the screen Odin's eye widened in surprise. Oh Loki, what have you done?

.-.-.-.

Intense relief spread through her. Loki let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Whatever you want, my dear." She hopped off the stool and headed down the stone stairs to the hallway that Tony's workshop was off of. What she needed was there.

"Open the vault, please," Loki asked Jarvis after she was through the door into the workshop. Her gaze darted nervously over to an area filled with tool chests for less than a second before moving back to the floor at the center of the workshop. She didn't need to think about the past right then. What she was about to do was hard enough without bringing that into it. A circle, several feet in diameter, sunk down into the floor a few inches. It then broke apart into eight triangular pieces. Each piece withdrew under the floor of the workshop. A large dark grey metal cylinder rose out of the hole. It was covered in drawers, doors, and cabinets, all securely sealed. The hinges were solid black while the handles were all canary yellow. A long, thin door opened so that a thin metal framework could slide out. The scepter that he'd given to Loki was mounted in the center of frame. "Please don't call Tony, my dear. Just let me handle it."

Grasping the scepter, Loki removed it from the frame. The framework slid back into the cylinder, resealing behind it. Then the dark grey cylinder slid silently back into the floor. As the vault closed Loki looked nervously at the scepter. It was as phosphorescent pale blue and terrifying as she remembered. It took a moment to notice that her hands were shaking. It was years since she thought about exactly what happened. That didn't lessen the blow when it hit.

.-.-.-.

The lights in the workshop flickered and dimmed down. Walls slid as ceiling and floor came together. Light, air, life squeezed out of the room. It was nearly too tight to breath. A gurgling drip near her head startled her. Loki wanted to turn swiftly, to see, to know, but the stone coffin she was in was so tight. She couldn't turn her head against the crystals covering the inside of the stone coffin. Her feet were encased in hot rock. The rough crystal rubbed painfully at her ankles. The gurgling dripping sped up to a frantic splattering. Slippery liquid flooded the tiny space by her feet. The liquid glowed with an unnatural blue light that was pale and phosphorescent.

Tony?

The slippery blue liquid sloshed around her ankles, steadily rising. Loki tried to raise her hands, but they were bound to her sides. She could feel the stitching through her skin into her muscles that held her hands down. The glowing liquid was climbing up her legs. Its foul burn seeped into her skin, peeling it back and replacing her blood as it went. There was a fiery, itching burn in her veins as the foul blue liquid slid through them. A high-pitched whining started in the back of her throat. Then the chittering began. There were worms in the liquid. Biting, nasty, digging worms. They were boring holes in her muscles, eating towards her bones. Agony throbbed through the empty holes in her flesh. The vicious burning blue liquid poured into those holes.

Tony?

Ever higher the liquid climbed. Its rancid odor filled her nose and mouth with the most piquant of smells. The blue glow wafted up with it. It's stinging pungent fumes assaulted her eyes. It was only when Loki tried to close her eyes that she could feel the stitching holding them open. Hot tears flowed down her cheeks. When the worms reached her bones, they didn't stop boring. Crunch! Crack! Snap! They were eating the insides of her bones. Her chest ached with the pain of it. A shuddering scream tore its way out of her throat. It had to fight to get any sound around the thick tube that reached into in her mouth and back down her throat. She could feel it shoved down towards her lungs.

Tony?!

The blue glow began filling the tiny space she was trapped in. Splish-splash, splish-splash. It sloshed around her thighs. The smell was overpowering. Loki's stomach rebelled and tried to empty. The thick tube in her throat blocked its progress. Only tiny splashes of bile managed to find her tongue and teeth. The rest traveled in a thick wave between her stomach and the top of her throat. The acid in the bile burned her esophagus while the sheer volume of the liquid stretched the fragile meat-tube out to painful lengths.

Tony!

The itching burn was seeping farther and farther into her as the slippery liquid continued its inexorable march higher. It closed over her hands and lapped at her hips. Loki could feel the worms beginning to bite at her nails. Her hands clenched into fists, but it was too late. The worms latched on and were eating through her fingers. They nibbled to the first knuckle, gnawed their way to the second and ground past the third. Muscles, tendons, bone, crunch, crunch, crunch. Panic was growing in her mind and spreading through her body. Loki's muscles jerked and spasmed as tearing agony followed by vicious numbness shrieked up her nerves. She screamed again as a new realization hit her.

I can't feel my legs! Tony, where are you?!

She jerked her arms and could feel the worms eating through her elbows as she tried to bend them. The blue glow was sliding up her body. It was wrapping around her ribs now. The ravenous little worms avoided her insides, stuck to consuming her bones. Loki tried to pull her arms up again. They smashed into the walls. She tried to pull, even to tear her own skin. No matter how hard she jerked, the stitching held.

Tony please!

Loki jerked and twitched. Her body slammed into the tight walls surrounding her. The burning liquid was lapping at the skin of her neck, peeling the skin back and soaking in deeper. The last thing she heard was the soft chittering of the worms as they sloshed around in the blue glow. The vicious burning itch in her veins finally found its way into her head. Blood of my blood, boomed through her thoughts like crashing thunder wiping away the rest of her thoughts. Terrible indigo light glowed all around her, replacing the last of the darkness with something far worse. It was his terrible indigo light. Panic and pain both melted away into a smooth nothingness. Loki's blank eyes stared upwards, barely even noticing how the liquid flowed into her ears and nose. The worms crept silently across her eyes. They were the only thing able to darken the terrible indigo light. She barely heard the dirt falling down onto the tiny box before it all faded to an agony filled black.

.-.-.-.

As Loki withdrew a bladed scepter from the large cylinder Odin began to look over the scepter. It resembled what Thor described to him, curved and wickedly sharp. The metal looked similar to what Mjolnir was constructed of. It had an oddly glowing blue gem in it. The gem was too big to be any of the Infinity Gems. He remembered well what the gems looked like. Perhaps Loki was mistaken in thinking this was an Infinity Gem. This didn't seem right. His analysis of it ended abruptly as he noticed Loki's hands shaking. There was a look of growing fear on his son's face and he dropped the scepter. Odin felt a chill when he realized where he'd seen the look before. At the end of the war with Jotunheim, many of Asgard's warriors were liberated from the dungeons of the Jotunns. There were many who were unable to speak of what horrors they survived. Many never spoke again.

Loki had the same look on his face. Odin watched as Loki dropped the scepter and stumbled back. He crashed into a wall and sank down to the floor. His hands tangled in his hair on either side of his head while he curled into a small ball. What did they do to you? The beast within him was howling for the blood of whomever hurt his son. He had to agree with the beast then. He wanted their blood as well. I will find them. I will destroy them.

The terrible keening noise that came from Loki brought tears to Odin. In all the many years he'd known Loki, he rarely ever seen his boy cry out in pain. No matter the illness, no matter the injury, his Loki fought to keep control. He could not, did not, want to imagine what was done to Loki that would make him cry out so. Was it in the breaking of yourself that you were you left vulnerable to whatever ravages they could concoct?

Heavy dread filled Frigga as she listened to Loki cry out. Little tremors shook her muscles lightly from the effort not to get up and go to her son. She wanted to be able to gather Loki to her to make this stop. Loki needed her but was alone. Merely looking at the scepter was enough to drop Loki to the floor. Something, someone, caused that reaction. Frigga couldn't gather Loki to her, but Frigga could have vengeance for this instead. Odin would see to it. He would bring her proof that whoever hurt their son was dead. It wasn't the best of outcomes. It was what she could get, so she'd take it.

The scene in front of Director Fury was very disturbing. He knew men who had severe flashbacks and, more often than not, knew what caused them. The men who suffered from these events weren't men he considered well-adjusted or well-functioning members of society. It was always obvious that they had problems. Seeing this just brought more questions to his mind. How was this hidden? What happened to cause this? Did it have anything to do with the array on the abandoned space station? If it didn't then who was capable of doing that to a being as powerful as Loki, and why was it done? The Director put his questions in his notes. Getting an answer from Loki had only a small chance of happening. They were still answers that he needed. If there was someone out there powerful enough to do that to someone like Loki, and willing to, then he needed to know who they were.

Alarm left Clint leaning slightly forward in his chair. Every new thing they saw made it that much more difficult to hold onto the fading remnants of his anger with Loki. It was all too easy to ignore the voice in the back of his mind that said he shouldn't care about Loki, because that was his friend on the floor. It was Loki, but it was Lilith. Lilith needed help and didn't have anyone. It was very awkward that he wanted to have been there to help her when she needed it.

It wasn't as if Frey didn't understand why Loki did it alone, though he still disliked it. Anthony would have stopped her without hesitation. He understood the good that came out of this act. He understood that there were countless lives protected with this act. He understood his grandson was born of this act. None of that calmed his anxiousness as Loki was lying on the floor shuddering and crying out.

Loki remained curled on the floor for several more minutes, shaking and crying out, before he regained control of himself. Each shudder enraged Odin. Each cry struck at his heart. When Loki uncurled, he looked dazed and confused. That quickly gave way to the look of fierce determination that he'd seen many times before. Even now, even after you've broken, you're still unbowed.

.-.-.-.

Loki could feel an intense pulling at her hair. Ever so slowly she realized it was her own fingers tangling in the curls. It took another moment before she regained enough control to unclench her hands. The was a vague sense of fear in her thoughts. Her mind felt wretchedly slow. Was it a nightmare? I don't remember. I usually remember my nightmares. I don't remember. Sensation returned slowly. It trickled in from limbs huddled too close to her aching body. Untangling herself gingerly brought more aching sensation. Loki looked down at the cold grey concrete she was laying on. Above her was the equally cold grey concrete of the ceiling. The lights shined from above, glaring in their luminescence. When they flashed a pale blue Loki felt the fear return. She jerked as sensation hit her again then faded in a moment. The scepter! Jarvis' new body and the scepter. I remember.

Looking around the floor showed Loki the scepter lying near the entrance to the vault. I've bested you thrice, I can do it again! She steeled herself and got up off the floor. Striding angrily over to the scepter she snatched it up. "Are you still watching me? Are you still waiting? You're going to keep waiting, for today I take this not just from your hands, but from your control. Today I wrest this from you, and you will know that it was me who bested you," Loki spoke to the scepter, "again."

She held it up close to her face. "No more boxes. No more dirt. No more worms. No more blue burn. No more. Today, I am free. Today. You. Lose," she spoke to him. Loki thought she could feel his rage. A wicked grin spread across her lips. For just a moment she reveled in it.