Title: A Lane to the Land of the Dead chapter 8/14
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.
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 8
~0~
"Thank god you're here," the police chief said when Loki appeared outside the club. "Where are the others?"
"On their way," Loki replied. "Where is he?"
"Inside," the police chief replied. "He's killed about 15 we think, including three of my officers. Won't surrender. We tried tasering and shooting him, but he keeps getting back up so we thought it was a job for you guys."
"You shot him?" Loki snapped, grabbing the chief by the arm angrily.
"We had no choice, he wouldn't put his weapons down," the man paused, and then asked. "Is he one of your people? He's dressed a lot like you."
Loki looked around at the chaos his son had caused. The street was lined with ambulances taking away injured clubbers who had been caught in the crush at the exits, and all around him he heard people frantically searching for missing friends, calling their names and ringing their phones.
"I will deal with him," he said, and walked towards the entrance.
~0~
The club was silent, but the coloured lights still pulsed idly as Loki made his way towards the dance floor where William stood, grinning, and surrounded by a pile of broken bodies.
"I told you," he said as he motioned towards the corpses. "I gave you the opportunity to end this, but you wouldn't and now their blood is on your hands."
Loki walked towards him, stepping over the bodies until he was stood before him, raised a hand to his cheek, and simply said, "Come home."
"It's too late for that," he whispered, nervously twisting the knife in his hand.
Loki looked down. "You will not hurt me again."
"Won't I?" William asked, bringing the knife up, stabbing it towards Loki's stomach until it met a barrier of magic.
"No, you won't," he replied.
A tear rolled down William's cheek and his face twisted as he whispered, "Why won't you help me?"
"I will, I promise. Come back with me and we will talk."
"Talking? How will that stop the pain I feel in every single moment that I still draw breath?" William said bitterly as he beat his fist against his chest.
"It helps," Loki promised. "It helped me when all I wanted to do was destroy everything, and myself along with it."
"No, no," William said, shaking his head. "It's not enough."
"Come home," Loki said again.
"I wish I could," William whispered. "I wish I could have a fairytale ending and live happily ever after, but those stories are a lie, and I shall find no peace."
"I can't promise you a fairy tale ending," Loki said. "But if you come back with me I promise things will be different."
"They will?" William asked hopefully, and Loki nodded.
There was a crash behind them and Loki turned to see Iron Man smash through the thin roof of the cavernous club and land with one arm outstretched, ready to fire his repulsors. "Put down the knife, kid. It's time to give up."
"Stark, NO!" Loki shouted.
William snarled, tightening his grip on the knife once more, and teleported out of the building.
"Where did he go?" Tony shouted.
"Guys," Clint's voice came over the comm link. "We need you outside RIGHT NOW!"
~0~
"You took your time," Clint said, as Thor landed in the street next to him. "I thought you'd be here before us."
"I had to stop and ask for directions," Thor admitted, his cheeks turning pink. "I am still unfamiliar with many areas of the city."
"Next time I'll draw you a map," Clint said as he watched William standing on the roof of an ambulance, surveying the scene in front of him.
Loki pushed open the door of the club, walked out into the street, and stopped as he saw his son. He was bathed in the red light of the ambulance, head tilted slightly down, and a wicked grin on his face. His only movement was the heaving of his chest as he breathed deeply, and his fingers curling round the knife as he twisted it in his hand. Loki had seen Midgardian representations of evil, pictures of the devil and demons, but this was the closest he had seen to it in this realm. He was a truly terrifying sight.
"You need to come down from there, son," Steve shouted, as Iron Man landed behind him. "We don't want to hurt you."
"Are all Midgardians as dull as you?" William asked, rolling his eyes. "That's what I WANT!"
Steve edged closer to the ambulance, one hand outstretched in what he hoped was a calming gesture. "I know you do, but we're not murderers."
"It wouldn't be murder. I will not be a victim. You will be setting me free."
"Let us help you instead."
William cocked his head to the side, raised a shaking hand as if he was about to climb down, and then grinned. A blast of energy erupted from his palm, clipping the edge of Steve's shield, and it sent him crashing backwards.
"Hear me now," William roared to the crowd of below. "If you will not end my life I will see to it that the streets of this city are awash with blood! Listen well, and send out the word that every death from here on was caused because your precious Avengers would not heed my simple request."
William jumped down from the ambulance, landing gracefully. He raised his knife and said, "So it begins."
Clint loosed an arrow as William came towards him, but a split second before it reached its target the boy disappeared, leaving the arrow to rebound off the back door of the ambulance and clatter onto the pavement.
A scream came from further down the street and a police officer fell to the ground, rolling and clutching his back.
Another scream to their right as a woman fell backwards, blood pouring from her neck.
To their left a man let out an agonised cry as he twisted to the ground clasping his side.
"What the hell is going on?" Natasha asked. "Is he invisible?"
"He's teleporting," Loki answered as screams echoed in the street and people continued to fall. "Faster than I've ever seen it accomplished before."
Suddenly William was before them again, breathless, smirking, and the knife in his hand dripping blood onto the tarmac. "Who's first?"
Before anyone could answer Tony grabbed him by the waist and blasted up straight into the sky at supersonic speed.
"I don't know how many powers you have, kid, but I'll bet flying isn't one of them," Tony said when they reached a high altitude and came to a halt.
"Why don't you drop me and we'll find out what happens?" William rasped out.
"If I didn't think your dad would gut me in my sleep, I'd be tempted."
"Let me fall," he said, squirming on Tony's grip.
"Stop wriggling will ya," Tony snapped. "Even if you do fall you know I'm just gonna fly right after you and scoop you back up again, so settle down. There's a cosy little cell with your name on it back at SHIELD."
"If I fall you will not be able to catch me."
"Oh yeah? What makes you think that?"
"Because you will be falling too," William said, then he teleported out of Tony's arms and re-materialised clinging to the back of his shoulders. He raised his arm and started stabbing desperately at the Iron Man suit with his knife, looking for any weakness he could find.
Tony started twisting through the air, trying to dislodge William, but there was a shower of sparks as the knife found a space between two plates and one of the thrusters on his back shut down, sending him into a flat spin.
Tony raised his hand, aiming backwards, shooting his repulsor, but without the thrusters on his back his flight became unstable and they began to tumble through the air.
William held on for one last moment, raising his arm again, thrust his knife down into the shoulder joint of the suit, and Tony screamed.
~0~
The other Avengers waited in the street below, their only view of the fight in the dark sky was the orange glow of Stark's trail, and when it became erratic they secretly feared the worst.
They breathed a sigh of relief when the trail evened out, came towards them, and finally Iron Man landed in the street, collapsing into a heap as he hit the floor.
"Where is he?" Loki shouted.
"What?" Tony asked, as his faceplate moved up.
"My son, where is he?"
"He fell," Tony said quietly.
"You let him fall?" Loki shouted angrily.
"Er, hello," Tony said, twisting his body to display the knife still trapped in the joint of his suit. "If you hadn't noticed, the little bastard stabbed me in the back."
Loki growled then set off walking down the street, and Thor shouted after him, "Brother, where are you going?"
"To find my son," Loki shouted back over his shoulder.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Thor shouted, and Loki teleported away without answering.
~0~
~0~
Tony went back to the tower in the Quinjet with the rest of the team and against Bruce's advice he made Steve pull the knife out so he could remove his suit.
One quick trip to medical later and he had 5 stitches, some itchy surgical tape holding a dressing on his back, and some pretty good pain killers, which he took just for the hell of it even though he wasn't in that much pain.
As he sat in bed, unable to sleep, still wired from the events of the day, he got the distinct feeling that someone was lurking outside his bedroom door, and he had a good idea who it was.
"You can come in, you know. Stop wearing a hole in my expensive carpet," he called out.
The door opened Loki entered tentatively, closing it quietly behind him.
"Did you find him?" Tony asked.
"I found where he landed, but he had long since fled."
"How do you know it was… Oh, let me guess, big pool of blood?"
Loki nodded slowly, his hands twisting together anxiously. "I wanted to apologise for his actions. I can understand if you are terribly angry with him, and me."
"I'm not angry at you," Tony replied. "Although a little sympathy when I had a knife sticking out of my shoulder would have been good, especially since I was so nice and helpful when it happened to you."
Loki's mouth twitched at the corner, almost curling into a nervous grin. "When I was being carried to the healers you were babbling so much I thought you were about to cry."
"True, but at least I didn't pass out like you did," Tony said with a smile. He sighed and said, "Don't worry about it. We're good. Go get some sleep before you keel over."
Loki's eyes flitted between Tony and the door. "Are you sure?"
"Go on, get out of here," Tony said with a wave of the hand. As Loki moved towards the door, Tony said, "When this is over you owe me a really good bottle of Scotch."
"You have my word that you will receive the finest," Loki replied, as he left the room.
~0~
Loki decided against heading towards the kitchen for a snack, even though he knew at this late hour he would likely have the kitchen to himself, and instead decided to shower and sleep.
As he entered his room he smelt a coppery tang in the air, and as he turned on the light he found William sat on his bed dressed in a simple pair of black trousers and a short-sleeved T Shirt, dragging a knife across his arm repeatedly, allowing the blood to soak into the white sheets.
"What are you doing here?" Loki asked, as he quickly moved across towards the bed. "If the others find you they will hurt you."
William hummed, drawing the knife across his skin again, and distractedly said, "That's the plan."
"Please don't do that," Loki said, as he watched blood run down his sons arm and drip onto his trousers.
"Why should I not? I shall be left with not a single scar," he replied, slashing the blade angrily across the inside of his forearm.
Loki watched as the skin peeled apart, blood welled from deep within the wound then solidified into unblemished flesh. "Because it hurts me to see you do it."
William grinned, finally looked up, and said, "Good."
Loki sat on the bed and placed his hand across the knife, stopping it from moving, but when the boy looked up something seemed wrong with the way his eyes roamed around the room unfocused. "Have you been drinking?"
"No," William replied with a huff of laughter. "When I have to heal my full body it has unfortunate side effects, makes it hard to concentrate and think properly, like my head is full of cotton wool."
"Perhaps that is why you are acting this way," Loki said, leaping on the new information. "We can go away, we can start a new life together. I can take you somewhere where you would have time to heal and would never need to do it again."
William blinked at him. "It will never work."
"Why ever not?"
"Because I hate you almost as much as I hate myself!" he snarled as he pulled the knife away and drove the point deep into his own thigh.
"Please don't hurt yourself," Loki begged again, as William pulled the knife out and clambered off the other side of the bed.
"I'm going to make you kill me," he hissed. "If you don't I will see to it that the Avengers die one by one, and it will all be your fault."
A huge burst of flames made Loki raise his arm instinctively and when he turned back William was at the centre of them, his skin bubbling with blisters and peeling open as he forced the flames to burn brighter.
Loki trapped the flames with magic, sealing them off inside a bubble that glowed like a furnace as William screamed, driving the flames until they were like an inferno within.
Water poured from the ceiling as the fire alarm sounded, and as quickly as it had started the fire blinked out, leaving a charred, blackened corpse to collapse to the floor.
Loki knelt and picked up his son's body, cradling him to his chest as the sprinklers continued to rain down, and he heard the thudding of feet running down the corridor.
Steve burst into the room, followed by Thor, Loki looked at them, and when he looked back down the corpse's eyes were open.
William raised his hand, slashing his father across the cheek with the knife, and then teleported away, leaving Loki knelt among the ashes of his room, clutching his bleeding face, while the Avengers looked on.
Next chapter, or chapters, will be up tomorrow :-)