Why do you always shoulder everything
On your own, suffering alone?
Why do you take all the blame for this
Saying it's all your fault?
-Tell Me Why by Ayumi Hamasaki

"Brother!" Thor pounded on the door and shook the lock violently. The door would not open. Only a few moments ago he had been sitting downstairs when he felt the overwhelming wave of magical energy come washing over him. Humans did not have the capacity to make a single such wave. This magic kept on coming and coming and Thor knew it had to have been from his brother. But now that he had made his way up to the floor Loki was contained on, he finally realized the magnitude of the emissions.

It was hard to breathe because of all the magic that was filling the air. He was already heaving trying to suck in enough air. He beat his fist one more time against the door before coming to terms with the fact his brother wouldn't open the door. He pushed Steve and Tony off to the side before talking a few steps back. He charged forward and rammed into the door. The wood splintered and Thor almost ran directly through it if not for the fact he tripped over something.

The blonde man tumbled across the ground before turning back to see what he had fallen against. His blue eyes widened in horror as he saw his brother lying limply on the ground. The Asgardian god still had his hand cupped on the ground and was continuing to end out sparks of magic. Loki's eyes were shut, but they were twisted in pain as shocks continued to be sent up his arm.

Thor scrambled to his feet and rushed over to his brother's side. "Brother! Stop it!" There was no real way to stop someone from expending magical energy, and Thor knew it. But he had to do something! His brother looked so sickly there on the ground and... was that blood? Thor's gaze travelled to the small stand by the entrance of the room and saw the telltale red color on the side of the wood. From where Loki was laying right now... Thor froze as he rapidly pieced everything together. He had caused his brother to hit the table and now he was bleeding.

Thor scooped his brother's head into his arms and frantically looked around for his friends. Steve was frozen in the doorway and was simply staring at the pool of blood that was rapidly expanding upon the floor. Tony had rushed off down the hallway in search of Bruce. Bruce, while he studied in nuclear physics, had also taken some medical courses. All physicists working with dangerous chemicals had to know how to perform first aid if necessary.

Thor looked helplessly from his brother to Steve. He had become so used to the thought of regeneration that injuries didn't bother him much anymore, but the regeneration required energy. It required energy that Loki didn't have. So instead, his brother was bleeding to death in his arms while he was already critically weak. Thor didn't know what to do.

Seeing Thor's look, Steve dropped to his knees and kneeled by Loki. He spread Loki's hair to the side around the wound and hissed when he saw the full damage. A large indentation was cut into the side of Loki's head with the deepest part leaking out blood. Steve could safely say that the skull had to be fractured because there was no way the injury could go so deep otherwise. It was a miracle that he was even alive.

Steve looked around briefly for a rag of some sort to staunch the bleeding. Finding none, he ripped the cuff of his shirt off and pressed it up against the injury. Steve frowned as the blood quickly seeped into the fabric, but continued holding pressure. Where on earth was Bruce?

"He's over here!" Tony's voice rang from down the hallway, much to both Steve and Thor's relief. Footsteps came pounding down the hallway as Bruce and Tony came into sight. Bruce pushed up his glasses as he leaned through the doorway, and cringed at the sight. He bent down beside Loki and looked the man over quickly before jerking Steve's hand away.

"The heck, Bruce?" Tony exclaimed as he rushed to put something else over the wound to staunch the blood flow.

"Don't put pressure on it," Bruce hissed as he swatted away Tony's hand. "You're going to aggravate the injury by pushing in the fragments! Good grief, Tony. Don't act before you think, and just leave this to me." Thor had rarely seen the doctor act so seriously, but he was glad for it. It seemed as if Bruce knew what he was doing, but Thor couldn't help himself. He spent the next five minutes holding Loki tightly in his arms and watching everything that Bruce did.

"The paramedics are on the way, and heaven knows that if they don't hurry up, I'll carry him to the hospital myself," Bruce said lowly as he held a hand to the side of Loki's neck. He had to stop the bleeding, and it looked like the only way he would get that to happen would be if he cut off some of the circulation to Loki's brain. They couldn't risk direct pressure so this would be the only way.

Tony had taken a step back out into the hall and had his hand up to the side of his head. He spoke animatedly to JARVIS, and Thor could just barely make out the words: "well tell them to hurry the heck up then! Someone is dying over here, and I'm pretty darn sure he can't wait for traffic."

Tony walked back over to the group huddled around Loki and said, "They'll be here in two minutes." Tony crossed his arms as he looked down at Loki with something akin to pity in his eyes. He had never thought he'd feel sorry for the man, but now he was sure there was nothing else to feel. The man had just tried to commit suicide. Even worse, Loki has used his technology to do it.

Tony had created the cuff to be a deterrent for magical usage, but he had never considered the fact it would be used like this. His eyes widened as he realized that the cuff probably still hadn't stopped trying to suck energy out. It was made to keep levels at a constant low and he hadn't programmed in a mechanism for it to end.

He grabbed Steve by the shirt collar, and tossed him out of the way. The man skittered across the floor, and opened his mouth to complained, but stopped as he saw Tony hurried fumbling with Loki's armband.

Tony felt around the edges of the cuff for the small clip that he had inserted for the lock. He dug his nail into the groove and pulled it out before planting his thumb onto the tiny monitor. The monitor flickered for a few moments before flashing green. The tech hissed briefly before falling down onto the ground. The light blue glow that surrounded the metal flickered a few more times before dying away.

Tony still couldn't get rid of the burning guilt inside of his chest. It was the same feeling he had when he was a weapons manufacturer. His technology was being used to hurt people, kill people. It was being used by people to hurt themselves. "Is there anything we can do to get him downstairs without injuring him further? Time is of the essence and the elevator doesn't move particularly fast," Tony mumbled quietly.

Thor cast a thankful look up towards Tony before looking over towards Bruce. "I can carry him if need be," he offered quietly.

Bruce looked conflicted as he glanced from Loki and back to Thor, "Keep his head down if you can. We'll bring him to the elevator, but be careful not to move him too much. It doesn't help that this place has over a hundred floors," Bruce sighed as he pulled away from Loki.

Thor took this as his cue to pick up his brother, and he carefully shifted the smaller man into his arms. They all slowly hurried into the elevator before heading down to the lobby. Thor looked at his brother's closed eyes, and listen to the dreadful sound of dripping liquid. He scrunched his eyes tightly shut and hoped, prayed, that somehow everything would be ok.

Author's Note: I felt so bad for Thor here. ): But for all of you medical buffs, Loki has an open depression fracture. I won't go into many details, but I'll try to keep it as realistic as possible.

I ended up posting this early because Potkanka asked me too. xD Be sure to thank her for it otherwise I wouldn't have posted till Tuesday. :P

I love the reviews, so keep them coming? (;