Tad bit of swearing, but that's bout it.
He was screaming.
"Nat!"
Black slimy claws tore at his flesh, their teeth dug into his skin, he could taste his own blood and he felt nothing but pain...pain...pain...
"Let him up, let him up!"
All alone in this dark cold cell isolated from anyone and anything but these beasts...
"Oh my go-..."
Out of reach...
Alone...
Cold...
So, so cold...
Blinding light.
A sky dyed red.
A land littered with twisted metal.
We're in the endgame now.
Stark...
He's been in my head for ten years, and now he's back!
You're an avenger now...
There was no other way.
I don't wanna go...
...I'm sorry.
[Screaming]...
[Crying]...
"Loki."
"You know what to do."
"Take this, it'll help you on your..."
"Loki!"
Loki gasped loudly, sucking in a deep breath of air. His vision was faded at the edges but he forced that away. Not now. Not now. He found himself no longer on his back, but on all fours, panting heavily as he stared at the yellow-green blades of grass. His whole body trembled and his hands were the slightest shade of blue as frost crept out and along the grass. Loki inhaled sharply, forcing himself to remain Aesir. Not now. Not now. Just not now.
Even so, nothing stopped the frost that formed beneath his knees and palms as he struggled to steady his breathing and stop the trembling of his fingers. Not now, not now. It's over. It's in the past. Focus. You're not alone this time...or are you?
Loki shook his head and blinked his eyes, eyes that were stinging from staring straight ahead for the past few minutes. Slowly, reality crept up on him, slowly washing over him like a wave. He became aware that the giant metal suit Banner was in was standing next to him, saying things he still couldn't register. He could feel vibrations on the ground, whether it was from friends or foes he couldn't tell. Slowly, his ears began to register the chaos around him.
"...wrong with him?" (Captain America)
"...don't know...never been... before...Loki..Loki?" (Bruce)
"...eye on him...was ri-...doesn't mean...trust him..." (Black Widow)
(chanting in another incomprehensible language)
(activation of some sort of device)
"...killing themselves." (Unknown female)
(Unknown command)
(Shooting of weapons)
Finally, Loki found himself able to move, breathing finally steadied and the trembling in his fingers were minor. He swallowed, trying to rid his dry, pained throat of the discomfort. Slowly, he looked up, stifling the fear within him. Just as he'd expected, the four legged beasts were crowded behind that shield, clawing and biting, their limbs falling off when they pulled through the shield, while a few strays made it through in one piece. More charged towards the shield behind them, and Loki could see and hear the guns shooting down the strays that ran towards them. Above, he could see the winged-man shooting at them, and the one wearing a similar suit to Stark's dropped bombs at the mouth of the shield, rocking the ground as the area erupted in flames and smoke.
Loki's eyes widened. Stark. The wizard, Strange. The message. Off to the corners of his eyes, he could see the beasts running along the side of the shield, slowly beginning to circle it. Loki forced himself to his feet, immediately being overwhelmed in nausea and dizziness and stumbling, but he pushed that all away, forcing the world to stop spinning and stay in focus. He turned to Banner, who was still standing next to him, unsure and worried.
"B-Bruce! Doctor Banner!" He said, voice raspy from his injury and earlier shouting, drawing the attention of the other Avengers. Natasha immediately turned, blade in hand, and shoved it near his throat again. He sighed exasperatedly.
"By the Norns, are you all blind? Their circling the shield, if they get behind us there's nothing stopping them." Loki gasped out, finally getting his voice to work.
"Why should we tru-..." Loki had enough with the trust issues. He'd had enough of everything. Enough. He felt the rage and impatience surge through him, mixed with adrenaline as he felt the magic swirl around him and saw them tense up. He didn't care about his throat, he could be mute later for all he cared, but right now he'd had enough.
"F**K TRUST! THE UNIVERSE IS AT STAKE, TO HEL WITH TRUST AND ALL THAT! JUST. FIGHT." And emphasizing the last two words, he leapt up, blasting one that had managed to sneak past all the bullets and had nearly pounced on Natasha. Muttering incantations, he snapped the cuffs off easily as he smashed his fist on the ground, producing a massive shockwave that rocked the ground and ripples forwards, eliminating a wave of aliens. Slowly, he stood up from his knelt position.
"You wanna know why I'm doing this? YOU WANNA KNOW WHY I WOULD FIGHT FOR THE F**KIN UNIVERSE? WHY SOME A**HOLE LIKE ME WOULD WANNA DO THAT?" Loki could hear his voice breaking, hoarse and rough even as he shouted, but he didn't care. It was time they act or they were all doomed. He laughed, laughed as he clasped his hands together, slowly opening it to reveal a ball of green magic.
"BECAUSE I'M DONE BEING TOLD WHAT TO DO! I'M DONE RUNNING! I'M DONE! THEY'LL PAY FOR WHAT THEY'VE DONE! THEY ALL WILL." Loki could hear himself screaming above all the chaos as he thrust that ball of energy forwards, disintegrating more than a few of them, before he laughed crazily. He turned, panting, to see his stunned 'audience'.
"Now would someone open the f**king shield before they have us cornered?" Loki growled out between breaths, suddenly feeling attached to these Midgardian swear words, thankful he'd learnt them and now had a way to vent his anger-besides channeling it to use as magic. He turned away from them, returning to the battle. He suddenly had an aching feeling in his heart. I can't believe it, but I wish Thor was here.
Loki clenched his fists, stopping his trembling fingers. He had work to do, revenge to earn. With a loud battle cry, Loki threw his hands in front of him and green magic burst forth, eradicating waves of aliens. Eyeing the still heroes and the advancing aliens circling the shield, Loki stretched out his hands sideways, muttering words silently, before increasing in volume, louder and louder, until finally, he screamed out the last ancient word. He felt his magic surging through him, felt the power rushing through his veins, felt it swirl around his body. He didn't know when his feet had left the ground, but now he floated above it, some few feet in the air, eyes glowing green and jet-black hair flowing behind him as he stretched out his hands and legs. He couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel...there was only magic...and nothing more.
Behind him, the heroes watched even as they shot at the aliens, as outside the shield green magic consumed a great amount of beasts. And suddenly green barriers appeared on either side of the shield, stopping them from circling around. Even so, they charged at the magic, clawing at it, but not breaking through like they did with the shield. Every time they tried going around or above it, it would expand, and far away, behind that shield, Loki could feel the down-turned lips of Proxima, could nearly hear the angry growl from Obsidian and see their furious glares, it almost made him chuckle. Yet he knew he couldn't remain there forever. All Loki could sense was magic, just pure, green, powerful magic; and yet somehow he knew the heroes hadn't moved, and he needed them to.
"OPEN...THE...SHIELD!" Loki could hear his hoarse voice hollering loudly above the rush of chaos he didn't know the source of. And even as the magic began to drain from him, as his emotions mellowed down and adrenaline began to fade, Loki clung on for as long as he could. He could feel the barriers begin to flicker, could feel them slipping from his grasp, but it didn't matter, he'd bought them time, a precious few minutes...and somehow he knew they'd done it, even as the last of his magic emptied out, as he felt his knees connect with the ground and buckle...he knew they'd done it, and a feeling of immense relief floods him before he felt darkness tugging at his soul... calling to him...just for a moment...
No.
Just like that, Loki gasped as he yanked himself back into consciousness. He didn't even wait for his physical self to grasp itself but shot up, stumbling, and setting his blurry sight to what he assumed was ahead. Slowly, his vision cleared and a smirk played across his face at the scene. He'd only been out for not more than a minute. A small section of the shield was opened, the creatures flooding in like an infinite torrent. Cap and the unknown cat man had ran ahead, leaping onto them and attacking while the rest of their army and heroes joined in soon after. Loki looked down at his hands, flexing them. He had the physical strength-sort of-but it would take a few minutes for most of his magic to return. He smirked. Using a fraction of his magic he summoned up his daggers. Who needs magic when you have knives?
Besides magic was for 'extreme situations'. Smiling now, Loki let out a loud battle cry before sprinting forward, past the slower Midgardian warriors battling the early strays, to the heart of the battle. Swinging his dagger, Loki felt like he was back on Asgard, fighting against Hela's army of the Undead...except more vicious and quick. Channeling all the pain and grief, anger and sorrow stemming from the events of the past few days, Loki could feel his seidr already coiling up inside him like a snake poising itself to strike. He could feel it begin to rush through his veins once again, and Loki nearly laughed aloud as he stabbed a knife into the heart of one creature, slicing off its slimy limbs. Smiling, he felt his seidr surge through him as he opened his inter-dimensional pocket.
Dozens of his trusty knives fell out, swirling with magic, and they circled him, pointing outwards, before zooming off, much like an arrow, leaving behind a trail of green wisps. Each knife pierced through several targets, before stopping abruptly and turning back, returning to Loki's hand where his inter-dimensional pocket remained open, ready to receive them. Laughing, Loki let a double-sided Asgardian sword fall into his hand before he closed his inter-dimensional pocket. Charging ahead with his new weapon, he beheaded more than a few of them.
They were flying in such a big ship, it was a miracle every weapon in Asgard wasn't firing at them. The ship zoomed past a statue, its long sharp end slicing through one of them.
"Great job. You just decapitated your grandfather."
The memory ached in Loki's heart as he stabbed at yet another of the creatures, letting out a roar of rage. He was doing this not for himself... but for Thor. For his brother. With newfound resolve, Loki fought his way through several more waves of the aliens before suddenly finding himself next to Captain America. Panting slightly, he stabbed one of the beasts before slicing it in half, then turning to the Captain.
"Glad you did as I said." He seemed to look him over before replying in a stern tone.
"I still don't trust you." Loki could hardly keep from laughing, and his laughter sounded slightly mad even to himself.
"Oh, Captain, even I wouldn't trust myself." And with that reply, Loki smirked, nodding at him before thrusting out a dagger right at his face. The Captain, looking slightly surprised, reacted quickly and ducked, and a horrible squelching noise was heard as it sunk into an alien's face. The Captain punched another few.
"You could have missed." Loki rolled his eyes at the comment as he sliced at a few more aliens.
"Oh I could have, but would you?" Loki flashed a smile at him before running ahead, and with a loud cry, his hand hit the ground once more and a green circle ripples around him, killing all those within his reach. He stood up, eyes suddenly lighting up with an idea, and for a moment he stood there in the cleared circle, muttering words. His eyes glowed green briefly before they returned to its normal emerald, satisfied. He decided to test it out, smirking as he scanned the battlefield and watched for their sure-to-be amusing reactions.
Behind you, Captain.
Loki watched, amused-even as he sliced at an alien-as the Captain flinched and turned around, before punching the alien that had snuck up on him. Scattered around the grounds, he could literally feel all of them flinching in surprise at his voice in their heads.
WHAT THE HELL?!
Loki winced, ears slightly ringing from the bird-man's voice.
Not so loud, you fool!
He hissed mentally even as he started struggling against his battle with the increasing numbers of aliens.
Loki. What are you doing in our heads? I should have killed you on the spot just now. I swear if you try any of your mind control tricks...
Loki couldn't have expected less from Black Widow, although he could not suppress an eye-roll.
I am not in your head. I have merely set up a mental connection between us to make communication easier. I couldn't control your minds even if I wanted to anyway, that being one of the limits of magic, and the only weapon capable of doing so in your hands. What, may I ask, has become of the scepter? Particularly the gem in it.
Why? So you can use it against us?
Even as Black Widow thought aloud, Loki heard another's thoughts slip through.
I wonder how Vision and Wanda are doing.
Loki grinned. So there were two other people?
Ah, so who is this Vision and Wanda you speak of?
He could feel them all gasping without needing to look at them.
He's gathering information, someone strike him down...
Loki was beginning to feel really exasperated.
Miss Romanov. Please, I am trying to help. But you must let me. I...
Loki stared directly at the blonde figure as she looked up towards his direction. He stared into her eyes and uttered every syllable clearly in his mind.
I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out.
Something in the sentence must have struck her, because this time she stared at him and nodded, before returning to battle wordlessly, some of the unspoken skepticism crumbling away.
Bruce, do you need assistance?
Loki somehow had begun to feel rather...attached to him, and couldn't help but feel inklings of...what was this, concern? building up within, when he saw him begin to get overwhelmed.
Err...actually I wouldn't mind a little hel-..
Loki didn't like how the thought was cut off, and immediately turned towards Banner's direction, only to see the giant red and orange suit overwhelmed with creatures. Stretching out his hands, Loki blasted them all away with magic.
Are you alright, Doctor Banner?
The suit began punching some aliens.
Yeah I'm fine. Mind telling us, err, how you happened to drop in...quite literally.
Loki sliced at more aliens.
Only if you tell me about what's transpired on Earth. I notice Stark is nowhere to be seen.
Loki was beginning to find it difficult to fight so many aliens.
Yeah well...2 years is a lot of time.
Loki rolled his eyes. Mortals.
The Avengers broke up...
Loki nearly missed an alien's claw and glanced wide-eyed at Banner.
...and Tony's...in space.
Blinding light.
A sky dyed red.
A land littered with twisted metal.
We're in the endgame now.
"No."