Hi! Here it is! Enjoy!
(Oh and just for the record... I ACTUALLY MANAGED TO PASS MY EXMAMS! just saying...)
Chapter 15
Jane, Thor and Loki ran to the closest car with Agent Hill in their wake. Doors opened, doors slammed shut and all the time Jane shouted at no one in particular they had to move. One by one the car drove off, ignoring every red light, angry driver or stop sign on their way.
Loki quickly understood the meaning and advatages of the seatbelt. He tried hard to stay on his spot, pressed between a hysterical Jane and Thor on the backseat, only just managing to keep up the illusion of Tony. In the meantime Agent Hill, who was sitting in front tried to calm Jane down, while explaining the situation.
"After the Battle of New York, SHIELD had to clean up the city as fast as possible, but the damage was massive. Buildings where broken down or build up, streets were cleaned and repaired, cars and bodies were moved… all overnight. As a result ,we haven't paid attention to what we were burying under the new streets. Our equipment, build by Doctor Foster and Doctor Selvig, have been scanning the area for some time now. During the attack, weapons powered by the Tesseract were used. We don't know how, but in some spots, this Energy was trapped. We think it might resemble the Energy in Loki's sceptre: trapped and extremely dangerous! As you probably heard, this Energy has consumed an entire SHIELD base in a matter of seconds. That's exactly what is happening now, close to Broadway on a smaller scale, yet dangerous. If the Energy implodes on itself, it might take the whole street, including the buildings with it.…"
"I don't care!" Jane suddenly shouted. She grabbed the back of Agent Hill's chair. "I want to know where my daughter is!"
Jane was crying now. Agent Hill looked at the desperate mother.
"We don't know! All we know is that the bus is stuck!"
Jane couldn't take it anymore. She started shaking the chair like a complete lunatic.
"I! Want! My! Daughter!" she screamed.
The car suddenly stopped. Thor threw open his door and almost fell out of the car. Loki crawled behind him. Agent Hill also stepped out the car. Jane, who had managed to find the door handle through a nonstop stream of tears, immediately focuses on the white tape, stretched over the street. Without thinking she ran to it, her eyes desperately searching for Frigga, her class, or at least the bus. Thor caught her just in time. Jane struggled and screamed.
"Let go of me! LET GO! I need to save my child! Where is my daughter! FRIGGA!"
Thor grabbed Jane's face. "Honey! Listen!"
Jane looked up and slowly recognized her husband's face.
"You… you have to save her…" she stuttered while grabbing Thor shirt. "You have to!"
"Jane! It's going to be all right! I promise… They'll…"
Thor was cut off when Agent Hill ran towards them.
"I've just received that the bus is clear! All the kids are out! Follow me!"
Jane had the feeling she was going to faint so she allowed Thor to guide her to the big black van parked a bit further. Inside she spotted Erik Selvig. The scientist was talking to a young Agent when he saw the distressed couple.
"Jane! Thor!" he said while trying to keep a smile on his face. "Don't you worry! Everything is going to be fine. The kids have all crawled out of the bus! Little heroes they are!"
"What exactly happened?" Agent Hill asked while the couple next to her searched the ground for the kids. They first spotted Loki/Tony, standing not very far from their position. He was staring at a point at the other end of the street. They followed his stare. There they saw a yellow school bus with a row of terrified little kids next to it, all guided by a couple of Agents to their side of the street.
Behind them, they heard Erik explain the situation.
"The Tesseract Energy is piling up every seconds. About two hours ago, there was a small earthquake. We believe the driver lost control over the bus and drove into the building over there. A part of the facade has come down and buried half of the bus. The emergency exit is blocked, so the kids had to crawl through the window. Like I said: real heroes…"
Loki searched the terrified kids one by one. His heart was beating out of his chest, but seemed to shrink every time he didn't recognize the face he wanted.
Where is she? he thought while trying to swallow. He was sure that this was the bus Frigga had been on. So where was she!
Suddenly the ground started to shake. The high-pitched screams of the little children cut through the air. An earthquake! And this one was bigger than the last one. With the sound of crushing and scraping metal, the facade of the building opposite of the street came down and covered the rest of the bus.
And then it stopped. Loki had managed to stay on his feet – he was rather used to sudden 'earthquakes' – and desperately searched the kids again. They were fine, but he still couldn't find a pair of terrified bright blue eyes. Loki turned and saw Jane and Thor, paler than ever, starring in the kids' direction.
Erik crawled to his feet again and turned to the van.
"Update?"
"The Energy is reaching maximum. It can blow any second, sir!" an female Agent said looking at the little screens inside the van.
Erik cursed under his breath. "Secure the Area!" he said to Agent Hill. She nodded and walked away, while shouting something in her earpiece. Erik rubbed his forehead when Jane suddenly ran up to him.
"Erik! She's not there! Frigga is not there!"
Thor tried to calm his wife down, but was too scared himself. Loki joined them.
Just at that moment, the women's voice sounded from the van.
"Errrr… Doctor… You might want to see this…"
Erik jumped into the van and bowed over the screen the woman was pointing at. He groaned.
"No, no, no…." he whispered. The screen showed a thermal scan of the bus and right now, they could all see the small silhouette of child at the back of the bus.
Jane made some kind of high pitched sound and sank to her knees, taking hold of her husband's blue jeans while she did.
"How is that possible! You said all the kids got out!" Thor shouted.
"I don't understand why she didn't follow the others…" Erik answered. He covered his mouth with his hand and loosened his tie a bit. In the meantime, the female Agent explained the new situation in her earpiece.
"Doctor, we're trying to get a team there…" she said after a couple of seconds. Erik nodded quickly.
"Thank you, Martha…." he said in a whisper.
Loki watched Martha. He frowned. The young king knew when someone was lying and this woman was definitely lying. There was no way that SHIELD was going to even try save Frigga...
Thor nodded. SHIELD would save her! He knew they would. He didn't know what was happening anymore.
Frigga… he thought. Why Frigga?
Sound faded away and suddenly the world seemed all wrong. At his feet, Thor could see his wife crying in a complete breakdown. Around him people ran and shouted, but their voices seemed far away. In front of him, Erik was looking at the screens in panic, but nowhere he could find anyone, except for him and Jane, who seemed to understand that his daughter was stuck in a bus that was about to blow. Didn't they feel the love for her as he did? Didn't their world collapse?
The God of Thunder was dragged from his thoughts when someone pulled his arm rather hard. He looked down and stared in a pair of desperate brown eyes.
"What are you doing!" a voice sounded from beneath those eyes. It took a while before Thor remembered that this voice belonged to "Tony" and that Loki was talking to him. The God of Mischief seemed to notice Thor's hesitation and quickly changed "Tony's" eyes into his own light grey ones.
"Why are you still standing here!" Loki hissed. "Do something!"
Thor frowned. "SHIELD will get her out! Didn't you hear?"
Loki dragged Thor behind the van. "Listen to yourself! This is SHIELD! They don't care about Frigga! Why would they risk the lives of a bunch of highly trained Agents to save a child that could be dead!"
Thor pushed Loki away from him, his eyes filled with cold anger and fear.
"Frigga is not dead!" he hissed. Loki had to admit he didn't like to think of that possibility either, but being realistic was in his nature.
"Then don't just stand here! Save her!"
"SHIELD is sending in a team…" Thor started, but his brother cut him off.
"You imbecile!" Loki shouted furiously. "She's your daughter! How can you even trust these puny humans! They can't do anything! That bus is stuck an can blow sky high every second! DO SOMETHING!"
Thor knew Loki was right, but there was something that was holding him back. Something that he could only describe as terror. Fear to find out the truth, to find his daughter dead. Thor completely froze while the tears started filling up his eyes. He'd never been so scared in his whole life.
Loki couldn't believe his eyes, but at the same time he almost pitied his brother. For once he was braver than Thor, even though he was so terrified himself. While Thor lost it, he could keep his mind where it belonged and think straight. Behind him Loki could hear a familiar noise. The noise of a metal suit hitting the ground. Stark had arrived. Jane immediately started screaming against him, so Loki couldn't quite follow the conversation.
Cold anger and hatred filled his whole body while he watched Thor crying in front of him.
Humans… always wasting so much time! he thought in disgust. Loki turned around and ran towards the side of the street as far away from the van as possible. At the other end of the street he could see the yellow school bus. The only way to get to it was to walk against the side of the street in the shadows of the buildings and afterwards cross the street. The shortest way was blocked by annoying Agents.
Loki threw a last look at the van. Four Agents tried to calm down Jane who was completely losing it now. Nobody was paying attention to him, so Loki turned himself invisible an crawled underneath the ribbon that separated the danger zone and the rest of the street. With every step Loki took he could feel the incredible force of the Tessarect Energy under the street. Fear took hold of his heart, but the young king forced himself to keep walking. Under his feet he could feel the stone break. Carefully, but as fast as possible, Loki made his way to the point where he could cross the street to get to the bus. He took a deep breath and cautiously put his feet on the open street. The stone broke. The young king froze and looked at the cars at the other side of the ribbon. Would someone notice him? There scanners probably would. Loki decided he didn't have much time. Step by step he crossed the street, every time leaving a bigger crack.
After what seemed to take ages, Loki finally reached the bus. Like he'd thought, it was almost completely covered by wood and rocks. Cautiously the young king walked around the bus to see if he could reach a window. At the end of the bus he found a little bit of unbroken, clean glass. Slowly, Loki climbed up a couple of stones and pierced through the glass. There, at the last seat he could see little Frigga. She was crying, pale as snow and … stuck… The window next to Frigga's seat was broken and a couple of steel bars blocked her way to the front of the bus. Besides that was her feet stuck in between one of those bars and her chair. Like Erik had said the emergency exit was blocked from the outside by a wall of stones and steel.
Loki bit his lip. Even though he was relieved Frigga was still alive, he didn't really see a way to free his niece. The ground shivered again and Loki fell down the pile while he could here Frigga scream in fright inside the bus. He needed to hurry. Loki took a deep breath and concentrated.
Frigga screamed and covered her head with her arms. The whole bus cracked when a new earthquake made everything shiver once more. Small drops of hot red blood dripped on her shirt from the small head wound right above her left ear, but the little girl didn't care. Her feet was stuck and the metal bar was crushing it under its weight. Frigga was crying, she'd never been so scared in her life. Where was he daddy? She wanted to see her mummy! With all her might, Frigga tried to lift the bar from her foot, but it wouldn't move.
Why did this happen! And what was happening? Frigga hadn't noticed the two bullies, who were sitting on the chairs in front of her, tying her shoelaces to her seat. When the bus suddenly slipped and hit the building Frigga had been thrown of her chair. Everybody was screaming and yelling and Frigga had tried to get to her feet when she noticed she was stuck. In the chaos that follow no one had noticed the frightened girl who lay on the ground at the back of the bus. When a another earthquake had attacked the area, Frigga's window had broken and allowed debris to block the only way out.
Frigga screamed in agony. She was scared and alone and the bars where hurting her foot.
And then suddenly she wasn't alone anymore. Frigga's stopped breathing while she watched Loki, looking like his normal self, unexpectedly appeared in front of her. The young king looked too perfect. There was no dust on his clothes and he just didn't seem to fit in the bus.
Frigga tried to get up. She had never been so relieved to see anyone, but the bars stopped her.
"I'm stuck…" she said in between sobs even though it was quite obvious she was stuck.
Loki smiled sadly.
"I can't help you Frigga. This is only a illusion of myself. I'm standing right outside the bus. All I can do is talk…"
The hope that had lit up Frigga's eyes disappeared again, making place for new tears. Before she could say anything, Loki went on.
"You have to listen carefully, because we are running out of time."
Frigga nodded. She didn't understand what was going on, but she trusted Loki would get her out of here. Loki's illusion kneeled before the frightened girl and smiled kindly.
"You are a demigod, Frigga… You know what that means? It means you are different than others. You are stronger! I'm no 'full' Asgardian myself, but I'm still physically stronger than any human. You can lift those bars! You just have to try!"
Frigga shook her head. "I can't! I already tried! I'm not strong at all!"
Loki smiled. "I believed that too for a very long time and even though I'll never be as strong as Thor, I've got other strengths. I've got brains for example… Believe me when I say this: with the strength of Thor and the brains of your mother, you'll get out of here in no time!"
Frigga swallowed. She wanted to belief Loki, but the endless bullying of her classmates didn't really fit in that theory. If she was strong, how was it that she couldn't even defend herself against those brainless pig faces!
"I believe you can do it…" Loki said silently.
Frigga bit her lip and forced herself to stop crying. She looked at Loki's encouraging smile before taking hold of the bars once more. With all her might she pulled. The bars didn't move and fright started to take over Frigga's heart again.
"You're an Asgardian, Frigga…" she heard Loki's illusion say behind her. "You're as much an Asgardian as I am. We belong on Asgard… as a family…."
Frigga lit up when she heard Loki say they were family. Again she pulled at the bars. Slowly they moved. Frigga's face turned red, but she only dropped the bars again when she managed to free her foot. Finally she let go of the steel. She looked up at Loki and smiled through her tears.
"I did it!" she shouted out of breath. Loki smiled back.
"You're not finished yet, Frigga. You need to get out. I want you to push against the emergency exit as hard as you can. I'll try to lift the rocks from the outside…" Frigga nodded and tried to get too her feet. Her foot protested, but the little girl chose to ignore the painful stabs that seemed to torture her ankle. She moved to the door and took hold of the door handle. She turned to Loki.
"I'll have to disappear now…" the illusion said. "I'm going to need everything I have to get you out of here."
It took a while before Frigga realised what Loki was going to do.
"No!" she cried out desperately. "Don't leave me! I'm scared!" Frigga stumbled forwards and tried to grab Loki, but she only fell through tin air. The illusion dissolved and Frigga started to panic until a second illusion appeared next to her.
"I'm right outside, waiting for you! You don't have to be scared."
Frigga was shivering. The same thought kept crossing her mind. What if it didn't work? What if she would die! Alone! Here!
Loki smiled encouraging. The illusion flickered a bit.
"When you get out, I promise I'll teach you some magic tricks…"
Frigga tried to smile and nodded.
"Okay…" she whispered before taking place before the door again and Loki's illusion dissolved a second time.
-xxx-
Outside the bus, Loki stumbled forward. His head was turning. He hadn't used this amount of magic for a long time. the young king blinked. He could feel the Energy of the Tesseract increase every second. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He lifted his hands and focused on the bricks blocking the exit. They didn't move. So Loki tried again. This time he could feel how Frigga was pushing the door at the other side of the wall. Steadily the wall started breaking and moving. Sweat covered the young kings face. Just before he thought he would faint, the wall finally broke down and Frigga fell out of the now open door right into his arms.
Loki blinked. Frigga held on to him as a new-born child, but her weight was too much for the remaining energy in Loki's body. He pushed Frigga away from him and looked at his niece. The little girl was crying, shivering and smiling at the same time. It was obvious she wasn't capable of standing on her feet for very long anymore, so Loki forced himself to remain standing.
"You follow me and step exactly where I put my feet! Understood?"
Frigga nodded fiercely. She dried her tears and tried not to think of the pain in her feet and head. Loki decided he had to change his appearance again since SHIELD would probably shoot him on sight if they saw him, even with Frigga. Turning themselves invisible was just not possible anymore.
Cautiously the two of them made their way around the bus and across the street.
-xxx-
In the meantime Loki's presents hadn't gone unnoticed. Selvig's scanners had registered another body close to the bus. Thor had immediately searched for Loki and when he couldn't find his brother/Tony he was certain that the body on the scanners was in fact Loki. Jane, who was turning from a complete breakdown to a commanding Agent had noticed Thor's behaviour. Together they were standing at the ribbon, watching the bus with fear in their hearts when suddenly Loki/Tony appeared with little Frigga in his wake. Behind them arose a commotion, but they didn't care. As fast as their feet could carry them, both parents ran to the spot where Loki had crawled under the ribbon, never losing sight of their daughter. Just at that moment another earthquake made the ground shake.
Loki almost fell over and only just managed to keep Frigga from doing the same. They were standing in the middle of the street and the shaking got worse until it suddenly stopped. For a couple of seconds it stayed silent. Then out of nowhere a high peep, coming from the scanners in the van filled the air. People started to scream. Loki could here Selvig shout: "Everybody! Get on ground!"
The young king shivered when he became aware of the raising Energy beneath him. The ground started to rumble. Frigga looked up at him with fear in her eyes.
"Loki!" Thor shouted over the rumbling. His brother looked up… just before the ground imploded with an deafening blow. Bright blue light filled the area while the street was ripped apart. The buildings collapsed and the yellow school bus was crushed with the terrible sound of scraping metal. Water pipes where cut, electricity lines ripped, cars and threes disappeared in the disaster.. The whole street was consumed by the bright blue light, only leaving a big cloud of dust and sand.
When it finally stopped, Thor looked up. He had pulled himself and Jane to the ground and had covered his wife with his body.
"No…" he said hoarsely in disbelief. Jane opened her eyes and sprang to her feet. She could barely see through the dust cloud.
"Frigga!" she screamed in agony. "FRIGGA!"
There came no answer.
"FRIGAAAA!"
Silence. To their right, the SHIELD Agents started to move again. Shouts echoed, order were given ... until the dust had disappeared. Everyone turned quiet.
Jane blinked confusedly. Before her she didn't see a terrible disaster as she and everybody else expected. What she saw was something that didn't belong there. That wasn't even of this earth. The ground behind the ribbon was covered in the greenest grass in existence. In the middle of the outstretched field there was a big pond shaped in two circles connected by a thin stream, filled with bright water in which you could see colourful fish. Every now and then, the grass was interrupted by a perfectly shaped rock. At the right there was a beautiful golden pavilion reflecting the almost non existing sunlight. In short, it was breath taking!
At the very end of the miraculous sight you could see two human shapes. One slowly got to his feet. In his arms he held a little frightened girl who seemed out of place wearing her in blood covered and ripped clothes. Especially in the arms of The God Of Mischief…
-xxx-
Selvig couldn't believe his eyes.
"Loki…" he whispered just loud enough to confirm Agent Hill's fears. They'd all heard Thor scream the God of Mischief's name, but they couldn't belief it until now.
Erik needed exactly two seconds to lose his mind. Two Agents and the Agent named Martha, only just managed to catch the frightened scientist when he sank to his knees, grabbed his head and screamed: "No! He's dead! He's dead!"
Agent Hill immediately shouted something through her earpiece while she wondered why the blue light she'd seen before seemed to float in Loki's direction.
Jane and Thor stared at Loki. They decided at exactly the same moment to duck under the ribbon. They followed each other as fast as possible jumping on the small pieces of street that had remained and which were strangely peaking above the grass of the amazing sight. Jane followed Thor's every move in the knowledge that if the stones could hold Thor, they could hold her too. To her right Jane could see Loki. The young king was standing as still as a statue with a shivering and crying Frigga in his arms. A flow of bright blue light continued to flow into his body. Jane frowned.
"What is he doing?" she heard herself ask.
"I'm not sure…" Thor answered clearly thinking over the same thing. "But I think he's absorbing the Tesseract Energy…"
Jane looked up. "What! Isn't that like… really bad! Isn't that what happened before the Battle of New York?"
Thor frowned and shook his head. "No… back then it was the Tesseract who controlled his mind and others, not the other way around…"
"But why is he doing this then? Is this some kind of Aether?"
"That's the problem… he shouldn't be able to do that… you've seen what the Tesseract does to people when it's Energy hits them…"
Jane swallowed when she remembered video's she'd seen about the time when Captain America had defeated the Red Skull. Also in New York the Tesseract had had the same result: the bodies were destroyed within half a second. Nothing remained.
"But how is that possible …" Jane asked.
Thor pulled up his shoulders. "I don't know. I just hope Loki knows what he's doing…"
The two parents had reached the spot where they could cross the street. Loki and Frigga where standing a few steps away from them. Jane and Thor looked down at the grass at their feet.
"Careful, Jane… it's an illusion!" Thor said. Jane looked up.
"That's an illusion?" she asked in disbelief. She'd seen Loki do some amazing illusions, but never one of this proportion.
"Why is he doing that?" Jane asked.
"I don't think we want to know…" Thor muttered. The illusion stopped before their feet so Thor and Jane cautiously made their way over the street behind the illusion.
"Loki…" Thor said when they reached his brother. Loki carefully turned to face his brother. Thor was taken back. Loki looked extremely pale and his face was covered in sweat. His eyes showed an incredible pain. For a second Thor was reminded of that moment on Svartalfheim when Loki had died in his arms. Was this an illusion again? No.. for some reason Thor knew that this was serious.
The illusion behind Loki flickered for a moment. The young king made eye contact with Thor.
"Take her…" he said in hoarse voice while loosening his grip on Frigga. Thor quickly reached for his daughter and had to pull her towards him before she let go of Loki. The little girl cried and grabbed her father's T-shirt. Thor hugged her tightly and then gave her to Jane. The distressed mother took hold of her daughter.
"Loki, what are you doing?" Thor asked worriedly when he saw the blue light was still flowing into the young king's body.
"Get her out of here!" Loki answered harshly. Thor could hear his brother was suffering.
"Loki, stop it!" Thor said while trying to reach for his brother, but Loki took a step back. His whole body was shaking and shivering. The illusion behind him started to loose it's form.
Thor and Jane searched for breath when the destruction became visible. A enormous whole appeared underneath the now almost transparent illusion. On the bottom they could see the remains of the yellow school bus and the buildings. Water streamed along the sides. Now they noticed that Loki was standing at the edge of the hole.
"Oh my dear God!" Jane shouted out of breath trying to make sure Frigga wouldn't see the horror.
The last bitts of the Tesseract Energy flowed into Loki's body. The young king shivered and closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them again they were no longer light grey, but bright Tesseract blue.
"Loki! No!" Thor shouted while his brother stumbled further to the edge. The young king smiled sadly. His eyes where fill with pure fear, regret and sadness.
"I'm sorry…" he whispered before tumbling backwards into the deep, gaping black hole...
Hope you liked it! I think it's about time that I thank everyone who reviewed and read and liked and followed and ...
In short: I LOVE YOU GUYS! You've been great! I wouldn't be anything without you, so a very, very big THANK YOU!
You can expect a new chapie very soon, so ...
Please let me know what you think and review :)
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