I'll show you how to live again
and heal the brokenness within
Let me love you when you come undone
-Right Here by Ashes Remain

Natasha rushed over to Loki's side with Clint hot at her heels. She slid over to him and dropped down onto the ice. She flipped him over onto his back and scanned him over. She whacked him a few times on the chest. He didn't respond, but he also didn't have any broken bones. She would have felt that, so what was wrong with him? She turned to Clint with a frown as the man felt for Loki's pulse. Clint involuntarily flinched at how cold Loki was. Had he always been this way?

"He's still alive. I don't know why he's down though." Clint looked up to Tony, who had approached to figure out what was going on.

"From previous records, Mister Loki's energy source is low, sir." JARVIS said. A hint of concern was in his voice. Tony looked at the monitor that was running all sorts of scans, pulling up data streams along the way. Tony looked through the records as they scrolled by, taking in all the information. A computer made diagram of Loki's inner-magical circuitry was pulled up onto the screen, and Tony frowned. From JARVIS' readings, Loki had expended a good quarter of his energy in the last blast. Either he had purposefully overdone it or he had no clue what he was doing. Tony wanted to pretend it was the latter, but he worried that it was the former.

"Is there anything we can do to jump start him?" Bruce said, finally stepping closing to the small crowd. He had stayed behind for a while to try and calm himself down. Now would have been the perfect time for him to not lose control. He tried to prevent himself from angering at seeing Loki lying limply on the ground. He couldn't let the other guy out right now. There was work to be done.

"I'm afraid not, sir. We'd be able to do it if we had Tesseract technology, but that was sent back to Asgard along with Mister Thor." JARVIS said apologetically.

"Then we just have to ask Thor to bring it down for a bit, right?" Clint asked, standing up and brushing off his knees. He looked between all of the Avengers before looking back down to Loki. "We should bring him to a hospital though. He looks like he could use some fluids. It's not as if he's been taking care of himself that well." Clint sighed, looking down at Loki sadly.

"That will not be necessary." A loud voice boomed. The Avengers turned around to look at Odin. The man strode towards them with long confident steps, his cape trailing behind him. With each step, Gungnir echoed on the ground. His lone eye stared down all of the Avengers,

"What do you mean by that?" Steve demanded, stepping in front of Loki. He really wished he had his shield right now. A part of him warned him to be careful and that he'd have to be ready to run.

"It is my fault that this has come so far. Loki is my responsibility, and mine alone. I brought him back from Jotunheim, pretending that this would never come about. I doubted the wisdom of Yggdrasil, and it is something that I now dearly regret. I must now atone for this mess that I have created." Tony clenched a fist behind his back. Somehow, he felt that Odin's definition of atoning didn't correlate to his own definition of atoning. "The only way to prevent this from ever happening again is for the threat of Loki to be gotten rid of. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to send him to Hel." Odin closed his eye and shook his head.

"It is not something that I want to do, but it is something I must do. Loki understands this. He had begun the process, and it is my duty to finish it." Odin said calmly, gripping Gungnir tighter. He didn't want to do this, but he knew that it was what he had to do to ensure the lives of thousands in Midgard and Asgard. The soul of one could not surmount to the souls of many, and they had to understand that. The point of sacrifice was to sacrifice one thing for the greater good. Loki had to be that sacrifice.

"To be gotten rid of?" Bruce said stupefied. "You would treat your own son as if he was a pig waiting for the slaughter? Doesn't he mean anything more to you or are you really just as cold as he had always told us?" Bruce didn't believe that evil was born or inherited. He also didn't believe that people could be evil from the start, but he was having a real problem seeing Odin as anything other than evil. He was talking about Loki, a living and sentient being, as if he was trash.

"I would treat the lives of all my children as precious to me, but if one son threatens the lives of all the others, I would have to stop him. All humans, frost giants, fire giants, dwarves, aesir, and many more creatures are all my children. I cannot favor one child's life over another's when they are both so precious to me. But Loki is threatening thousands. I cannot let that continue any longer." Odin slammed the end of Gungnir down on the ground, sending shards of ice flying.

"So, unless you clear yourselves from my path, I will have to remove you. I do not want to harm you, but if I must, I will." Odin roared, holding Gungnir out to the side. Odin's casual wear was replaced by a dark battle armor. The steel was tinted a dark black, and dozens of scars marred the once flawless metal. The cape was gone, and instead two spikes protruded from his back, meaning to spear the enemy. The man was millennia old, but he had not lost his domineering glare. The Avengers flinched back before regaining themselves.

They were the Avengers. They had avenged the world and now it was time to avenge Loki. "Well, bring it on then." Tony said, snapping his face shield shut. He flung his hands out, activating the thrusters. He launched into the air, hovering over the future battlefield. "We aren't going to let you hurt Loki!" Tony yelled.

On the ground, Bruce cracked his hands and shook out his arms. "Well, it looks like we had better "suit up"." His skin glowed green, and his size expanded. His muscles bulged out, and he roared in fury. The Hulk had arrived, ready to avenge his fallen friend.

Author's Note: Oh my goodness, guys! I found another plothole in the Thor!universe! Thor never learned that Loki was a frost giant! I watched the movie and saw that Thor never talked with anyone about Loki's heritage. It was never revealed to the Avengers either... So is this secret only between Odin, Frigga, Heimdallr, and Loki? Tell me what you think because I think this might be true... The he's adopted comment could refer to him being a son of an Aesir. It's a logical cover up considering how he looks different from the rest of the family... D:

Also, thanks so much for all of your support! I can't believe this fanfiction has crossed over 100 reviews. It makes me so happy, and I'm so thankful for all of your support! ;-; Thank you so much!