Chapter 23

Thor gasped for breath as he watched the green monster of Banner spiral to the ground, Mjolnir clutched firmly in his hand. He could feel his body calling for rest, longing to stop and reflect, but he had no time and he knew it. He had to ensure Loki was still trapped and Maria was safe.

He flew to Loki's chamber, darting through the suddenly deserted corridors. That worried him; that worried him a lot.

He was even more concerned when he found the door to the chamber already wide open. He paused in the doorway for half a second as he stared inside. His eyes widened.

"NO!"

Thor threw himself at his brother as Loki stepped through the open door of the glass prison - and fell straight through him. His shoulder crashed into the floor of the cylinder and his heart stopped as he heard the electronic hiss of the door shutting behind him.

He was up in a second.

"Will you ever not fall for that?"

Loki's mocking voice chilled Thor's blood as he caught sight of his brother's pale face from the shadows, a satisfied smirk on his lips. It was the fact that he was not alone that had him fearful though. Numbness washed over his body and he had to fight to cling to his grip on Mjolnir as his brother strode casually forward into the open, pulling his captive forward by the wrist.

Maria's wide, glistening eyes gleamed at his. Her face was crumpled, tears streaming tracks through the dirt on her face. "Thor." she whimpered pleadingly.

Thor's heart bled; there was nothing he could do. He was torn between ice cold dread and a burning hot rage at his brother, each one nipping at his senses with painful speed and accuracy before the other would rise to dominate. His chest felt like it was caving in when he focussed on Maria's distraught face.

Then his gaze widened, taking in Maria's trembling form under Loki's vice-like grip on her arm, holding her wrist eye level as he harshly guided her forward with him. Thor's teeth gritted with animalistic fury.

He let out a roar as he swung Mjolnir back, slamming the hammer with all his might into the face of the glass. He had to break free, was all he was thinking of. He had to break free to help Maria, to get Loki away from her. He would not surrender her to his brother's mercy - Thor knew he had none. His heart quivered in his chest, a crippling combination of fear and frustration: Mjolnir thudded into the glass. Not through it. For a moment all he could do was stare at the cracks that crept out from around the hammer's head, mystified as to how the structure was still intact. He peeled Mjolnir from the glass and let it hang at his side.

His gaze glowered back to Loki. "Loki, let her go." he growled darkly, trying not to look at Maria. He was sure it would break him.

Loki's smirk flickered back into place. "I cannot. I need her. And you practically handed her over to me by bringing her here. You brought her to her own destruction."

Thor barely had time to breathe as Loki suddenly tugged Maria to him by her wrist, her back thudding into his chest. His arm secured itself under her chin instantly, a firm pressure on her throat. Maria gasped, her trembling hands clawing at Loki's forearm desperately, panic clouding her sky-angled eyes.

"Maria!" Thor's eyes widened, momentarily not caring if his brother saw him as weak for how much he cared.

"Her death will be on your conscience." Loki hissed at him, drawing back Thor's attention. "When I kill her I want her to know that it was you who delivered her fate to her. So that your betrayal is the last thing that goes through her mind before she dies."

Thor's quickening breaths started to rasp.

He wasn't the only one - a strangled cry left Maria's numb lips, her grip on Loki's forearms weakening as he choked her. Her knees buckled, until it was only Loki's arm around her neck that kept her upright.

"No!" Thor's fist thudded into the glass, eyes glistening painfully. He didn't care any more. "Loki, let her go!"

"I hope you built up the courage to tell her your secret in the end." his brother sneered. "You may not get another chance."

"Maria..."

Thor watched, palm helplessly presses against the glass as Loki slowly choked the life from her. And there was nothing he could do. There was no anger, no strength, no fury - only numbness, weakness, helplessness, knowing he was trapped and there was nothing he could do to help her.

He could not lose her. Maria couldn't die - Thor didn't even know how he would process that. He simply wasn't prepared to live without her. But the unfolding scene before him reminded him he might not have a choice.

His knees trembled threateningly at the thought.

"Stop!" he half begged, heart feeling like it had been ripped from his chest. "Leave her be, Loki! Stop this now!" His hand on the glass was the only thing keeping him upright.

Then Loki suddenly disappeared from behind the young woman and she collapsed in a heap on the floor, small body convulsing lightly as it hauled in urgent breaths of oxygen. Her face was hidden by her splayed hair.

Thor sunk to his knees also. "Maria." he gasped.

"She will die." Loki assured heartlessly from his materialised position near the monitor, a good - but by no means safe - few paces behind Maria. "But not yet. Not until I say."

Weakly, Maria's head peeled up from the floor, her fingers numbly reaching out for him. She met only glass. "Thor." she panted, more out of relief than any sort of panic. Her eyes were gleaming when they met his, and he was surprised to see them as calm as they were.

It stopped his frantic heart for a second.

His fingers moved to match hers on the glass when suddenly Loki was behind her again, pulling her up by her hair.

Thor leapt to his feet the minute Maria's cry of pain hit his ears.

"Did you tell her?" Loki smirked over his fist clenching in Maria's locks, her head tipped back so far it looked like it was breaking her neck. Her mouth hung open in a silent gasping scream, her eyes screwed shut against the pain shooting from her scalp. "Tell her what you told me. I want to hear you say it as you bid her goodbye."

"She knows." Thor growled darkly, feeling his instincts take over again.

"Tell her again!"

Loki tugged hard on Maria's hair for good measure, earning a whimper from her lips. "Thor!" she gasped, chest heaving for breaths.

Loki's eyes glinted in sick amusement: "Or do I have to hurt her some more?"

Maria's back arched, hands clawing at thin air, knowing there was no damage they could do. Blood stained the front of her band shirt, seeping from her wounds with more vigour as her body stretched them open again. That, combined with the agony that contorted Maria's face, broke something inside Thor.

"Maria, I love you." spilled instantly from his lips, his bravado dropping instantly at his brother's all too real threat sank in. "It'll be okay. I'll make it okay." His words had no effect on Maria, almost as if she didn't hear them. It didn't matter if she could. Thor didn't think she'd believe them when even doubted them himself! Maybe he was just trying to comfort himself as much as he was her. "I love you more than anything."

A satisfied smirk spread over Loki's lips.

"The humans think us immortal." he said, releasing Maria so she dropped to all fours, and moved with tantalizing steps back to the monitor.

Thor only had eyes for Maria, relieved when she lifted her head and met her eyes with his. She was breathing hard, pain still forking in her glistening brown orbs, but they seemed just as determined as his were to stay strong.

Maria seemed to have better control than Thor at that moment. He felt like he wanted to drop to his knees. He wanted to weep. He wanted to spill the contents of his heart to her so she knew exactly how he felt, exactly how he'd ever felt. But he couldn't. He just couldn't. His gaze was locked on her fragile, abused form, watching her suffer at his brother's hand while he was helpless to intervene. He just wanted to touch her, to feel the warmth of her body and know that he wasn't too late yet.

"Thor." Maria gasped between breaths, a small smile flickering at her lips.

Thor had to admire her control; her eyes were bright but solid now, the fear kept at bay by the harshness of the pain. Even that she tried to mask.

He fought to get a grip on himself. It should be the other way around he thought, that she be scared and it be his controlled orbs that comforted her, even when there was next to no hope. He blinked some hard resolve back into his gaze, twining his desperation with a sheer determination until his eyes gleamed with the same intensity as Maria's.

Her impeccable mask was broken with a twinge of agony, a hand flying to her bloodied shirt. "Uhn!"

"Maria." Thor's palm ground into the glass. What he'd give to touch her, to hold her - even if he could just hold her hand! Just some form of contact to try and comfort the woman that kept his heart beating.

He longed for her to say something back, but her quickened rasps were all he got. Her teeth gritted and a thin sheet of sweat glimmered over her skin.

Thor wished he'd never left her. Damn Banner, damn the vessel - Maria was his mission and he'd left her. If only he hadn't. If only he'd stayed to defend her. Or better - take her away. Far away so they wouldn't be found and they could live together in peace. Thor didn't care about his brother or S.H.I.E.L.D.

He only cared about her.

"Shall we test that?"

Loki's words cut through Thor's thoughts and his attention was pulled up sharply from the wounded mortal on the other side of the glass. What? What had Loki said?

Alarm bells rang loudly in his head as he drank in his brother's hand over the monitor. When Maria shot her eyes to Loki over her shoulder though, casting aside her pain for a heart stopping second, Thor knew it was something to be really concerned about.

He jumped to his feet, Mjolnir in hand.

Just in time for Loki's finger to tap something on the monitor and the contraption around Thor to whirl to life.

A frown furrowed his brow as he examined the cage that trapped him with a thumping heart - something felt wrong. Very wrong. And the way Maria's wide, fearful eyes rolled back to him did nothing to help his twisting gut. What was happening? The technological noise grew louder, more intense.

It was just when he read the fear in Maria's eyes that he figured it out; not fear for her. Fear for him.

The dread settled in his heart - and the prison dropped from the base of the Helicarrier, tumbling it - and Thor within - to the Earth below.

Thor's body was tossed around like he was made of straw as the prison fell. Memories of watching Banner fall to the ground flashed through his mind, and he half wished he'd paused for a moment longer at the opening of the vessel to consider the scientist behind the monster. He'd just stood there and watched then moved on methodically, almost not caring about his 'team mate'. He regretted it now, falling through a similar path.

The situation was eerily familiar, right down to the figure watching from the opening of the vessel as he fell.

Maria flashed in his head as he thudded over and over again into the wall of the cage.

He'd caught her face as he'd fell; the horror, the devastation, gleaming in her eyes through the pain of her body. And as he'd been unleashed to the mercy of the sky and the prison had started to tumble, he'd spotted her again. His heart bled thinking of she'd leaned out of the hole after him, arm reaching despite how much he knew it must have hurt her, fingers stretching for him.

Her hair had whipped around her beautifully and Thor clung to the thought, her round doe eyes never leaving him for an instant.

He fell.