Title: A Lane to the Land of the Dead chapter 4/14
Pairing/Characters: Teamfic. No Pairings. Loki, Thor, Avengers, Original Male Character. Brief non graphic mention of OMC/OMC
Tags: Gore, violence, strong language, angst, self harm, torture.
Note: There is no major character death in this fic.
Summary: 5th part of the Teamwork series, but this is written like a standalone fic, so if you haven't read the others you will still be able to understand it.
Loki has been an Avenger for two years, but as a new threat pushes him away from the team, they begin wonder just how much they can trust him.
~0~
Chapter 4
~0~
"Thank god you're here," the fire chief said, as the Avengers arrived and looked up at the burning building.
"What exactly is the situation?" Steve asked. "Tell us what you need us to do."
"Gas explosion we think, but the entire ground level is on fire and our hoses aren't even putting a dent in it. If we can't get this thing under control it'll level the whole block," the fire chief said. "We managed to rescue a lot of people before it spread, but the stairwell is blocked, and the fire escape on the north side of the building collapsed in the explosion. There are people still trapped, if we work together we can get them out before this place comes down."
"We'll do our best to help, sir," Steve said, laying a hand on the man's shoulder.
"Call it, Cap," Tony said as he looked up at the swirling smoke.
"Thor, you can bring lightning, but can you bring storms? Like rain?"
"Aye, I can."
"I need you to do that, it'll make it harder for the fire to spread to neighbouring buildings if everything is soaked, and I mean really soaked. I want buckets. So get up high and cause some storms."
"I will," Thor said. He spun Mjolnir and took off into the sky.
"Clint, Natasha, I want you on the ground helping to get people to safety when we bring them out. Liaise with the police and fire department to make sure people get as far away as possible just in case this thing comes down."
"We're on it," Clint said, as he and Natasha moved over towards the fire command point.
"Bruce, that corner wall is starting to look shaky, if it goes the entire building will come down like a deck of cards. I need you to brace it to give people time to get out."
Bruce nodded and grunted as he allowed the transformation to take over, his muscles bulged, his skin flushed green, and his shirt ripped as his body began to change. When it was complete Hulk stalked over to the corner of the building, police and firemen scattering out of his path, and placed his massive back against the bulging wall, forcing the bricks back into alignment.
"Tony, you have heat sensors?" Steve asked, and Tony nodded. "Will they work so we can find out where people are trapped inside the building?"
"Might be a bit difficult with so much heat from the fire, but with a few recalibrations I should be able to find them."
"Good, I want you to stay in touch with Loki, because he has the most important job of all."
"And that is?" Loki asked.
"When Tony locates people I need you to teleport in and bring them down to street level. We have no idea how many people are in there, and it could collapse at any moment, so you need to be fast and most importantly I need you to listen to Tony for directions. Can you do that?"
"I can," Loki nodded.
"Good. I'm gonna be down here waiting for you to bring the people out, so you bring them here to me when you find them, and I'll make sure they get to safety."
"You ready?" Tony asked as his faceplate slammed down.
"Yes," Loki replied.
Tony blasted up into the sky, wheeling round the building in a slow arc as JARVIS calculated a recalibration that would allow him to see body heat through the thick smoke and residual heat from the flames below.
The sky turned an ominous shade of black over their heads, lightning forked through the clouds, and torrential rain began to fall.
Loki looked up at the clouds, his cape already sodden with water, and sarcastically said, "Oh, thank you, Thor."
"Calibration is ready…" Tony's voice came over the comm. "I got one. North side, third floor, second window from the right."
"Understood," Loki replied.
He teleported to the room Tony had named and coughed on the choking smoke. The heat was almost unbearable and flames were starting to creep under the door of the apartment. He looked around, holding the corner of his wet cape over his mouth.
"I cannot see anyone. Are you sure it was this room?"
"I can't pinpoint the exact location in the room, but someone is definitely in there. Check everywhere, people sometimes hide or fall during a fire."
Loki walked around the room, and then noticed something under the window, covered with a blanket. He pulled the blanket away to reveal an old man collapsed against the wall with his legs curled under his body.
"I'm coming out. Find me another," Loki said, as he laid his hand on the man and teleported down to the street.
"Good job," Steve said, as he picked the man up.
"Forth floor, north side again. Picking up two people. First window on the right."
Loki nodded to Steve and teleported back into the building.
~0~
With Tony's help Loki worked quickly, finding people overcome by smoke on the lower floors, and people who were conscious and terrified on floors higher up. They clung to him, desperate for escape from the flames that were moving higher up the building, despite the best efforts of the fire department outside. They thanked him profusely when they found themselves in the street outside the building, safe and alive.
"That's number 47," Steve said as Loki brought out a terrified young woman. "You holding up OK?"
Loki coughed and scrubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands. "I will be fine."
"Just found another on the second floor. North side again, corner of the building, first window. It's getting pretty hot in there, you better hurry up."
"I hear you," Loki replied.
The Hulk roared loudly, pushing his back desperately against the damaged wall, which was starting to crumble under the weight of the building above it.
"Everyone get out of here!" Steve cried. "It's coming down!"
Police and firemen ran, and Steve grabbed the woman and dragged her down the street.
Loki closed his eyes and teleported back into the building.
"What are you doing? That place is about to collapse. Get out of there NOW!" Tony shouted over the comm.
"It will not harm me if it does," Loki replied.
"Is someone there?" a voice asked.
"Where are you?" Loki asked, coughing on the thick smoke.
A woman wrapped in a wet towel, holding a young girl tucked against her side, burst from the safety of a wardrobe, grabbed Loki's arm, and shrieked, "You have to help-"
Loki heard a strange sound, a thud in the distance, then the world lurched to the side as the floor beneath their feet tilted and vanished. He watched as the desperate woman threw her arms out as she fell, losing her grip on the child in her arms who tumbled through the hole in the floor, and Loki quickly encompassed them in a deflection spell so they wouldn't be crushed by the weight of the falling debris.
"No!" Thor shouted, watching as the building pancaked flat, sending waves of rubble and dust exploding out.
He flew down to the ground from his position on a crane that hung out over the street and landed by the heap of wreckage, quickly joined by Iron Man.
"Did my brother escape?"
"No," Tony replied as he lifted his faceplate. "I told him to get the hell out of there. He said it wouldn't hurt him if it did. I hope to god he was right."
Steve ran towards their position and asked, "Loki and Hulk?"
"Still in there," Tony replied.
"Can you scan for them?"
"There's so much heat now," Tony said, as he scanned the wreckage. "Everything is compacted and I can't get a lock on individual sig-"
There was a roar and bricks erupted from the pile as Hulk clawed his to the surface of the rubble. He climbed out, standing on top of the collapsed building and roared again, then walked over to the Avengers, dusting himself down nonchalantly.
"Good to have you back," Steve said, and Hulk grunted in reply. "So that's one down, one to go."
There was a flash of light and Loki appeared before them, the woman clutched against his side.
"Brother!" Thor shouted triumphantly. "You have survived."
Loki shrugged. "Magic has many uses."
The woman began to squirm against his side, making unintelligible sounds.
"You're safe, Ma'am," Steve reassured her.
"Where is she?" the woman shrieked. "Where is SHE?"
"What?" Loki asked.
"My daughter, she was in my arms, and now she's gone."
"I wrapped the spell around us all, she should have been safe," Loki said desperately, then he looked at Thor, and said, "I thought she'd be safe. I thought I'd done it right."
"You let her die!" the woman screamed, beating her fists on Loki's chest. "It's your fault she's dead and I'm still here! Why didn't you take her and leave me behind?"
Steve grabbed the woman's wrists and pulled her towards him, wrapping his arms around her. "Why? Why? Why?" she said over and over as Steve led her away.
Loki wiped at his soot-streaked face, and said, "I thought I had her."
Thor wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "I know you tried your best, Loki."
"My best was obviously not good enough," Loki snapped, pushing him away. "A child is dead now because of me."
"And 48 people are alive because of you," Tony said.
"You think that will comfort a grieving mother?" Loki shouted. "It is my fault she is dead!"
"You can't blame yourself for this," Tony said.
"Watch me," Loki replied, then he moved over towards the smouldering rubble and started to dig.
~0~
It was dark before Loki allowed Thor to lead him away and let the rescue team continue the search for survivors. Tony had scanned the wreckage for hours, hoping to find some trace of the girl or other survivors, but in his heart he knew there was no hope of finding her alive.
As Loki sat in the back of the Quinjet he thought back on the spell he had cast and couldn't understand how it had not wrapped itself around the child. He had let her slip through his fingers like so many of his own children before her.
When he reached the tower he ignored Bruce's pleas for him to go to medical for a check up after inhaling so much smoke, and instead headed down to William's new room.
Loki tapped gently on the door and waited for a reply, but he heard no sound from inside the room. Slowly he pushed the door open, expecting William to be reading in the large armchair by the window, but it was empty and the room lay in darkness. Loki entered quietly and saw William laid in bed, sleeping peacefully, and even though he knew he should leave he felt the desperate urge to stay with him for a while.
Loki watched the slow rise and fall of his chest, noting that the boy looked even younger when sleeping, without the serious look that he usually wore. He thought about the battle that William had left behind him and the fact that his son, his child, would one day have to go back to that.
Loki sighed quietly, surprised by how much that idea upset him. He had only known the boy a week; he hadn't felt him grow inside him, seen him come into the world, take his first step or play in the palace gardens, and yet knowing that he would see these things eventually was somehow enough now. In the future he would have a child, one who would be able to grow up on Asgard, a child who wouldn't have to be sent away for it's own safety and the safety of others, and who would be accepted by all.
He moved his hand out, desperately wanting to brush his fingers over his son's hair, but he looked so peaceful, and instead he quietly tip toed out of the room, closing the door behind him.
~0~
~0~
The man stood in the shadows of the alleyway, idly sucking on a cigarette, surrounded by the contents of the last handbag he had stolen, as he waited for his next victim.
The woman he'd taken it from was old and had fallen when he ripped the bag from her arms. He ran away, leaving her screaming in pain in the middle of the dark street, but he didn't care about her, all he cared about was his next fix.
He heard footsteps, poked his head around the corner, watching as a grey haired woman shuffled slowly along the pavement and began to cross the road. He discarded his cigarette on the floor and left the shadows, stalking silently after her.
The woman didn't scream as he grabbed the bag and tried to tear it away from her, but the handles were looped over her arm securing it to tightly to her. He pulled again, dragging her towards him, then the woman looked at him with no fear in her eyes, and grasped his wrist in a punishingly tight hold.
She laughed; her high pitched cackling lowering in tone as her features began to change and warp, and the man gasped as her hair turned dark, her clothes changed, and he found himself face to face with a dark haired young man.
"You picked a bad day to be a criminal," William growled as he closed his hand tightly, shattering the bones under his fingers.
The man screamed in agony, trying to pull away, and tripped over his own feet, falling backwards. "Let me go," he shrieked. "I-I won't do it again."
William grinned and twisted his hand, sending the crushed bones of the man's wrist tearing out through his skin. "And how do I know you are telling the truth?"
The man screamed again. "I-I swear it!"
"And the word of a common criminal is to be trusted now? I think not."
"Please…" the man whimpered. "Please, let me go."
William looked down at the cowering man for a second, conjured a long thin blade, and thrust it into the man's stomach.
"A dagger wound to the abdomen is a particularly slow and painful way to die," William said as he twisted the knife deep inside the man's gut and neatly severed his aorta. "Fortunately for you I have an intimate and practical knowledge of the inside of the human body."
The criminal's eyes went wide as blood gushed from the wound, then slowly closed as his head fell back against the road.
William allowed his knife to vanish and wiped his hand on the dead man's jacket. He stood, looking down at the corpse at his feet for a moment, and smiled. He tilted his head to the side and felt the air move around his body as his room in Stark tower materialised around him.
He moved his fingers, forcing the clone that occupied his bed to dissipate, and then removed his clothes. He slid between the crisp white sheets and chuckled to himself as he caught a hint of the aroma of the dead man's blood on his hand.
Chapter 5 will be posted tomorrow.