As I fell through the sky I thought about just letting go. To let myself keep falling, falling into nothingness.
My life has been full of sadness, so much loss, it seemed like everyone I got close to died. Loki doesn't count, but at the same time he proves everything about my life. Every major relationship in my life had been tragically sad, maybe that's my fault or maybe my taste in men is just really bad. Or maybe my life was destined to be a life filled with loneliness, maybe I was cursed to lose everyone I loved.
And if Coulson was right, then Thor was destined to die as well, and I won't let that happen. If I have to live on Earth the rest of my life to keep Thor safe I would, to make sure he lived.
I opened my eyes and saw the ground rise up to catch me, but I didn't let it. I slowed down my fall and let my boots kiss the earth lightly.
Focus on Thor. My thoughts drifted to those stormy gray eyes of his. I shook my head. Thor and I had been friends for over 300 years, and I didn't want to lose the one thing in my life that actually made sense.
Even if he did have feelings for me, what did that matter.
After this whole mess with Loki is over, Thor will fly back to Jane and I will be alone again. I do better on my own anyway, maybe I could stay on Midgard with SHIELD.
I laughed, and rolled my eyes.
Imagine that, staying on Midgard. There was a time that I was afraid of that very thing, but maybe this world was changing, maybe it had matured in a way that I didn't think was possible.
I closed my eyes and soaked in the sun. Something about the sun had always made me feel better, it reminded me of a simpler time, a time that I would lay in the forest outside of my mother's house and imagine my future. I never thought that it would end up like this.
I located Thor and flew full speed towards him. He was standing in a dirt field filled with large boulders with Mjolnir sitting on the ground in front of him.
Thor was covered in dirt and small scratches.
"Cade!" Thor yelled across the field and then he was in front of me pulling me into his welcoming arms.
"Hi." I breathed. Being in his arms felt so comforting so natural. I was used to Thor's bear hugs, but lately being in Thor's arms made me feel like the sun was warming up every single part of my body.
"Are you alright?" He asked me as he pulled back and checked me for wounds.
I nodded. "I should ask you the same thing." I replied looking over at Thor's scratched up arm.
"I'm fine." He clipped as his eyes began to blaze with anger. "The nerve of him, doing something so vile and then pulling you into his arms and kissing you!" Thor yelled. Lightning crackled across the sky.
"Thor it's okay I dealt with him." I said trying to calm him down.
"No it's not okay! Kissing you like that and then saying that you were his! As if he has some sort of claim on you." Thor roared. Thunder rumbled and a bolt of lightning snapped into the ground next to us.
"Loki has always been jealous Thor you know that." I breathed.
Thor chuckled darkly. "That was more than jealousy Cade and you know it."
A vision of my dream flashed into my head, the vision of Thor's cold body beneath my feet. A chill ran down my spine. I could feel Echo bristling against my skin.
"Shhh," I whispered, placing a hand to my wrist and stroking Echo. "I should have stopped him." I whispered barely audible.
"What?" Thor said raising his head to look at me.
"I should have stopped him!" I screamed, slamming my fist into the boulder to my right, splitting it in two.
"What could you have done Cade? I'm just as guilty as you, I could have stopped him too." Thor murmured.
I shook my head and stood up to my full height. "I could have said yes to him. I could have gone with him, and maybe when it was just us together I could have made him see sense." I yelled slamming my fist back into the rock breaking it even more.
Thor was on me in a flash.
"Cade, don't you ever sacrifice yourself like that. Loki would just use you against us. What if he got into your mind? He could have taken control of your mind, and then what?" Thor said. He was so close to me, pulling my face from the ground to look at him. "I would never fight you Cade, you know that, and that's what he wants. To divide us because his jealousy has invaded his mind."
I pulled myself from Thor's grasp. "It's more than his jealousy. Did you see his eyes? The scepter is controling him too. I might be able to help him."
Thor shook his head as a clap of thunder shook the ground beneath our feet. "His eyes were just as green as always Cade. Your mind is playing tricks on you."
Wait, was I the only one who could see it?
"Somebody has to stop him Thor." I said solemly.
Thor sighed and placed his hands on my shoulders. "Yes, but not everything is on your shoulders."
Warmth radiated from the palms of his hands down through my body, and I wanted to sink into his touch, but I held myself back.
"Cade it's not your fault, I could have stopped him too, but I didn't know how far Loki would go." Thor said softly.
"No. It's my fault, and now a good man is dead." I said solemnly, remembering what Coulson had said to me.
"Loki is doing this because he wants to be a king, and I am the person standing in his way. Coulson's death is on my head, not yours." Thor turned around to look back at Mjolnir.
I was in front of Thor so fast he didn't have time to blink.
"Don't you ever blame yourself for Loki's jealousy. He is acting like a child who wants a shiny new toy." I let out a huffy breath.
Thor was looking at me in a way that made me lose feeling in my legs.
He took a step forward, getting closer to me. "Cade, I..."
I wanted to kiss him so bad, but if I did it would ruin everything. Our friendship would become something else, something that I wasn't sure of.
Loki's words rang through my head like a symphony. "You were always mine, always have been, always will be." Another shudder ran down my spine.
"I can track Loki from here." I said, trying to change the subject, taking a step away from him.
Thor sighed, but called Mjolnir back into his hand. "Alright, but maybe we should check on everyone up there." Thor gestured upward to the helicarrier.
"Race you?" I said trying to make him smile.
He finally smiled back at me, rising off the ground. "You're on!"
And then we shot upward like stars, ready to face the destruction of the world.
We arrived on the deck of the broken ship. Everything was smoking, or still on fire, but at least it had remained air-borne. Thor and I crossed through the doorway descending into the ship.
I could see Natasha ahead of me dragging a man with short brown hair behind her. His head was rolling over to one side, and for a moment I thought he was dead.
"Do you need some help?" I asked her as I ran forward.
She nodded, and I knelt down to hoist the man between us.
"Here I'll get him." I heard Thor say. He pulled the man up on one shoulder, holding onto him. "Where do you want him?"
"In here." Natasha opened the door in the wall next to us, and we all marched into a small room. Thor laid the man down on the bed as Natasha retrieved a wet washcloth from the small bathroom. She tied straps onto his arms on either side of the bed, and began to drag a washcloth over his forehead gently.
"What happened to him?" I asked quietly.
"Loki." She said coldly.
I bit my lip. "I think I might be able to help, if you'll let me."
She looked at me, distrust in her gaze, but finally moved aside to let me closer to the man.
"What's his name?" I asked her.
"Clint." She brushed a strand of hair out of her face.
I placed my hand on the front of his forehead, and was immediately sucked into his mind.
Blue smoke rose all around me, and screams rang through his head. Visions of death and invasion flashed through his mind, an effect of the scepter's power no doubt.
"Clint" I said aloud my voice echoing through his mind. There was no answer, and the screams grew more frantic. "Clint!" I shouted louder than before, trying to draw his consciousness out of his head.
Clint rose out of the darkness armed with a bow, an arrow already notched against it. "Who are you?"
I raised my hands in a motion of surrender. "My name is Cadence, I'm a friend of Natasha's. I'm here to help you."
"No. I don't believe you" He shouted pulling the bow tighter. "You are just another trick, an illusion, sent to give me hell."
"I'm not here to hurt you. Loki has done something to your mind, please let me help." I replied calmly, trying to soothe him.
The grip on the bow loosened a fraction. I saw him consider my words.
"We don't have much time. Everyone is preparing for the fight that is coming. We need you on our side." I sent soothing thoughts through his mind, and raised my hand out in front of me, asking him to grab it.
For a moment I thought he was going to skewer me, but he slowly lowered the bow and placed the arrow back into the quiver on his back.
"Okay." He said softly stepping forward and placing his hand in mine.
I slowly cleaned out the muck in his mind that the scepter had left, letting his consciousness rise to the surface as I pulled myself from his mind.
I took a step back from the bed, weakly.
I really need to practice that.
Thor turned me around so he could look into my eyes.
"Are you okay?" His concern for me, flooded through my mind.
I nodded and let out the breath I was holding.
"We should give them a moment." I replied and slowly pulled Thor into the hallway, as Natasha and Clint began to talk.
"Wait Cade!" Natasha said loudly as we stepped out.
I turned to look at her.
"Thank you." Her voice was soft and full of gratitude.
I nodded and walked with Thor towards the bridge.
Fury was waiting for us, with Tony and Steve. Tony and Steve were seated at the large table with what looked like some kind of cards soaked in blood in the middle of it.
Ew.
"Oh so now you decide to show up. The great Asgardians, here to save the day!" Fury jeered.
I clenched my teeth together to avoid saying anything, Thor wasn't so lucky.
"We tried to warn you of what your experiments would bring, but you were too arrogant to listen to us." Thor shouted, anger burning in his eyes.
Fury opened his mouth to speak, but I shut him up.
"Look, I know we don't get along very well, but there are bigger things at work here, and standing around slinging insults at one another isn't going to help." I said as calmly as I could.
Fury sighed, but nodded in agreement.
"Good, glad we are on the same page." I said, letting a sarcastic smile cross over my face. "Now I can find Loki, but if we are going to do this right, Thor and I are going to need some help."
"Don't worry about that." Tony said standing up. "How about you Steve?" He said turning towards him.
Steve sighed, and stood up. "I'm in."
"Great. Now, let's go find this son of a bitch." Tony said smiling.
"He's in the tall building in the middle of the city, the one with Stark on the side." I said tracking Loki's position in my mind.
"Well not the first time somebody has thrown a party at my building without inviting me." Tony said into my earpiece.
Thor, Tony, and I were flying ahead of the jet that carried Natasha, Clint, and Steve. I still couldn't get used to the piece of metal in my ear, but tried to get around it. Obsidian was strapped to my waist, in the form of a heavy metal sword. Echo was moving impatiently on my skin, ready for a fight.
"I'll go in alone, everyone else circle back around." Tony said calmly breaking off to go towards the tower. His suit was still in bad shape from the fight on the ship, it would occasionally lose altitude, but then have a burst of speed, as he flew from us.
"Stark wait!" Steve's voice shouted in my ear.
"And he's gone." Natasha said sounding bored.
I watched Tony approach the tower quickly, and landed on a nearby building next to Thor.
"Do you think this is going to work?" I said to him quietly.
"It's possible, but I don't think that Stark will have the same effect on him that you and I have." Thor answered, crossing his hands in front of his chest.
"Maybe we should just go in to help him." I took a step towards the edge of the building.
"No. Let's see what happens." Thor murmured.
Tony fired an energy pulse at the device on top of the building. An explosion shook the building that Thor and I were standing on, but the machine was still intact.
Well, it's reached the point were we can't blow it up. Great.
I looked below the roof and saw Loki lounging lazily, looking up at where Tony was flying.
"Stark are you sure you don't want back up?" I said.
"No. I got this, babe." I heard him say confidently. He landed on the balcony and began to walk into his building, his armor was being taken off by some machine that seemed to rise from the ground.
"Stark please refrain from calling Cade a baby. She is actually much older than you." Thor replied confused.
"I don't think that's what he meant Thor." I said smiling and looking back at him.
He shrugged and looked back over towards the building where Tony and Loki were inside talking.
All of a sudden Loki threw Tony out the window of the building. I moved forward to jump off the ledge so I could catch him, but Thor caught my arm.
"Wait." He whispered.
Tony's armor shot around him and caught him before he fell to his death. I relaxed, and took in a deep breath.
"It's going to be okay Cade." Thor said trying to comfort me.
I nodded and watched Tony fly upward back to the balcony.
"I just don't want anyone else to die, because Loki is being an idiot." I replied.
That's when the sky exploded.