A/N: Warning! Explicit content!
Chapter sixteen) A Little Help
They were making their way to the ship, some of the dispatched in helicopters and Tony, obviously, flying. They had tried to think of a casual way to get aboard, but there seemed to be none. All they could try to do was get in as soon as possible and get as far into the ship as quickly as possible. They needed to get to the Silver Demon, that was their main concern. Certainly they'd made up a few good plans that would involve certain people - like Romanov - to take the sneaky pathways for the extra effect of surprise.
"Jarvis, you ready?" he asked, as they were nearing where the invisible ship was making its way through the air. This was going to be fun. He had a perfect view of the ship provided by Jarvis and it ensured that he would be able to manoeuvre around it, despite not being able to see it. "Let's bring this baby down," he said, quite passively, as he flew nearer. He raised his palm and fired a blast at the precise location of one of the energy supplies for the left motor. It also happened to be a part of the invisibility shield that surrounded the ship. "One down," he said, while he quickly made his way to the other side. At any moment missiles would certainly be on his tail, but for now he still had some time. He fired the second blast. That left two more to go. He manoeuvred as close to the ship as he possible could (and dared), making it harder for anyone to get a clear aim of him. "Three down, guys," he spoke, after firing the third blast. That left one more and he was already prepared to have run out of time as the missile escaped the hull of the ship and a moment later came rushing towards him. "Ah, this is where things get tricky." But not so tricky.
"Jarvis, put all energy into the thrusters," he spoke, although Jarvis had already taken care of it by the time he finished talking. He was flying straight towards where he should have fired the final blast and only when he was about to hit it halted - just long enough - before flying straight up, as fast as he could. Ah, the missile seemed perfectly confused and gushed straight into the ship.
"Good job," he heard Rogers say, who was in one of the helicopters furthest back, but had Hawkeye next to him, looking out at the scene before them, which clearly meant they had the best idea of what was going on.
"Thanks," Tony commented, watching how the ship was losing its invisibility. "That's better." He commented, patting the hull of the ship as he flew past it. But he also knew that the next missile was only a few seconds away and thus he was clearing away from the ship as soon as he could. Yes, despite the ship was only half-functioning as most of the engines had been shut off, they were still clearly outnumbered and as intruders, not defenders, stood a good chance at being beaten. "Well, we better get moving."
Loki had been going in and out of focus as he tried to get into one of the other books that Tony had brought him, but everything he picked up just reminded him of Tony and his absence, rather than having him absorbed into yet another story... It was quite horrible, he had to admit, as time suddenly seemed to be passing by so slow. And then it got worse as the door opened and the same agent from before came in.
"I'm not hungry," he said immediately, without so much of looking up from his book.
"I brought you something to eat, anyway," she spoke and put the tray down on the same table she'd put his breakfast down on. She looked at how little he'd had of it, but didn't comment. "I also brought you this," she spoke and a moment later a book landed in his lap. He blinked for a moment. "I'm sorry it's looking a bit rough, but it's one of the favourites of the kids."
He picked it up. The chamber of secrets? He wondered what that was about. But that wasn't the point. The point was that he could continue to read! He looked up at the agent, not quite sure what to say, as 'thank you' seemed out of place.
"You better finish it before you're out of here. I want it back," she said and he nodded in response.
"Of course," he said then. "I will."
And within no time he was engulfed into the book. The first few pages stole him right back into the story and he was making himself stop every now and then, for he didn't want to finish the story in one go. He didn't know whether the agent would bring him the third, after all. And thus he took his time, eventually starting to eat some of his food again, though still it were little bites that he couldn't enjoy. The food wasn't nice, but gradually as he was complaining less and less (which his mind turned to 'turning soft') he was getting nicer food. Or he simply was getting less determined to think of this entire place as a shithole.
Back in Japan everyone was making their way away from the ship as soon as possible. They hadn't been able to get a tracking device on the ship, for the missiles that were chasing them were too dangerous. "Back to base?" Tony asked.
"No, we need to fly to platform 63 in the South of the city, from there we can carry on the plan," Steve Rogers replied, to which Tony changed his course and flew towards the platform, away from the missiles and away from the ship.
Once they landed, Tony being faster than the helicopter, he pulled himself into a sitting position. Well, this was going to be a long day... it already was and it had only just started. Now was to hoping that they could go up against all of this...
It wasn't a long wait for the rest to return and when they did, they were loading gear onto the ship, gear onto Tony's armour. Of course, Tony was equipped, but these guns were needed to blast through the invisibility. It was going to work.
As they were flying back, they got exactly the right angle. They'd calculated what the blind point was for the ship and they were coming in exactly there. The moment they were close enough, they were blasting through the ships's shields, making it entirely visible. Then, they had no time to lose and landed on the ship.
Tony went another way and caught Hawkeye from one of the helicopters, dropping him on one of the walkways below the ship after having blasted the window open. By the looks of the ship, they weren't even so far off with what their scans had showed them and thus they had an idea of what kind of things were where as they'd researched the model of the plane.
They knew where the cockpit was and that blasting that to oblivion was their last resort, for they didn't like the sound of a ship this size crashing down on top of Tokyo. No, not a good idea.
Tony flew into the ship and started to blast the guards with the thrusters, as Hawkeye and Tony were in other places of the ship, making a good route possible for Romanov to sneak her way into the ship. "Scanners on high," Tony told Jarvis, wanting to get a layout of the ship.
They got further and further into the ship and thus further away from each other.
"Bad news," Hawkeye suddenly spoke.
"Can never have enough of that. What's going on?" Tony asked, blasting a guard backwards, then rushing into the next hall.
"I think I just spotted the Silver Demon. He's in the hall near the cockpit. His armour is gruesome, there's no way I can't get anywhere near him," he spoke.
"Is it time to signal for the Hulk?" Tony asked, to which he heard nothing for a while. He carried on his task, then leaving the ship once more to fly to the back of it.
"That was close," Hawkeye then said. "The patrollers at the front here are... skilled," he said. By the sound it it, Clint had tackled them, but not so easily. To that, Tony headed closer to the front of the ship. "We can't do this without the Hulk. Romanov, are you in?"
"Not exactly," she asked and by the sounds of it, she was fighting.
"This isn't sounding so good. Okay, send the big guy in," Steve spoke, who was listening in and fighting his way around the outer skirts of the ship.
"Glad I don't have a say in this," Bruce replied, then indeed left the helicopter and hopped aboard the ship, making his way towards Clint.
"This is where the war begins," Steve said, breathing in deeply. "Prepare for the worst, fellows."
"Always do," Tony replied, to which Clint let out a laugh.
"We have a Hulk," Hawkeye spoke as the green monster came into view. "We'll be fine." He was right, wasn't he? The Hulk... who could beat the Hulk?
Tony and Steve made their way through the ship, making paths for Romanov to take that lead her to meet up with Clint, which he did, though something was wrong, again.
"What's wrong?" Romanov asked as she ran towards Barton.
"Run," Hawkeye spoke. "Everyone out, now. Just go. Run," he spoke, running faster, his hand clasping on Natasha's, taking her the way he had just cleared.
"What's going on?" Natasha asked, running with him. He pushed her before him, so she could flee faster, but she didn't know why, and he wouldn't speak. "Clint?!" she demanded, turning around to him, but he didn't respond, he just motioned to run.
They both reached a window, where Clint had been dropped into, where Tony had blasted the window open. "What now?" she asked, turning towards Clint. They were high up and they were lucky if Stark could catch the both of them. Still, Natasha didn't know what they were fleeing for...
"Jump, just jump," he spoke, pushing Natasha towards the window. "We need to go."
"What about Bruce?" she asked, looking around.
"Too late," Hawkeye responded.
"Too late? A little optimism guys," Tony spoke. "I'm coming your way, what's all this 'run' stuff about?" he asked.
"I'm back on the helicopter," Steve notified.
"Just jump Natasha!" Clint shouted and she doubted, looking into his eyes. She then saw a big, green arm appear at the end of the hall, though there was something slowly enclosing around him and his body had a different posture, a different- The metal was silver and it was folding around him, as if it took him over, encasing Bruce's body, as if it did that to keep him in that form. "Jump!" Clint shouted and this time she didn't hesitate, jumping out of the ship and giving herself over to the fall.
She turned to look up at the window, the last thing she saw being Clint attempt to jump. Tony then grabbed her and flew her up. "Save him," she spoke insistently, looking at the window, where Clint no longer was. Nor was he falling. "Save him! He's got Clint!" she shouted.
"We need to go home. We'll come back soon. We need a new plan, we underestimated them."
"Blow the cockpit," Natasha replied, holding onto the iron suit firmly. "Blow it!"
"And lose Bruce and Clint? No..." Tony said.
"So we're going to let Clint be used again?" she asked. Tony gave a nod and flew her all the way back to base, where she let out a heavy sigh once she touched ground. "We need a new plan," she insisted immediately.
"Don't worry, we'll get one," Fury spoke as he left the helicopter back at platform 63. Tony pulled his helmet off and stepped towards Fury.
"Yeah, I have one," he replied, motioning for all to gather.
"What is it?" Natasha asked. Everyone could see that she was slightly upset, but only because they could now say that they knew her.
"One word, name, actually:" Tony said, grinning, "Loki." Certainly the silence was the least Tony had expected to get in return, but it didn't cause him to cease grinning. Silence was good, it meant that they couldn't come up with any immediate arguments against the matter. He looked at each of them and as no one spoke, he continued. "Loki has no powers at the current moment," he spoke and immediately Romanov set in to make an objection against Loki helping, at that, as certainly a powerless God wasn't going to be a match for the monster they'd just encountered. "There is a way for him to redeem them, however and I'm quite certain that it's got to do with this whole fighting for the light and doing good, stuff. Isn't it always that?" he asked. "So, we just need to throw him into that ship and let him do the rest."
"You'd sacrifice him like that?" Fury asked, raising an eyebrow, though not actually minding the idea of Loki being sacrificed at all. In fact, he seemed to be only questioning Tony's morale.
"It's not sacrificing, when it's curing," Tony replied with a shrug. "Besides, he's quite the manipulator. I'm certain he'd hold out against this thing."
"Yeah, he didn't hold out so well against us," Rogers replied, clearly not believing Loki was what he implied to be.
"Don't underestimate him," Tony spoke, raising his eyebrow towards Rogers. "Just, don't."
"I'm not underestimating him. I think we don't have any use for him, except for use him as some kind of bait, perhaps," he said.
"Well, like I said, if he redeems his powers-"
"What if he turns on us?" Natasha then spoke. Why did nobody just let him speak?
"Even with his powers he couldn't face the Hulk. Let alone the Hulk and something much more powerful," Rogers spoke, raising his eyebrows.
"But this time, Loki is on our side, for he won't be fighting me. He has other things on his mind. Now, if he would be in the state to turn on us, he wouldn't have redeemed his powers," he spoke, raising his eyebrows. "Now, please," he started, "let me tell you my plan."
"It's too risky," Rogers spoke, before he gave Tony the chance. "There's no way that we're going to get anywhere. He won't turn to the 'light'! Do you really think that he will become a good person?"
"Yes," Tony replied and he found it difficult for he had no Bruce to back him up. "Thor sent him here and he wouldn't do that if there was no way to let him redeem his powers, and thus: yes, he can turn to the light, Rogers," Tony spoke, raising his eyebrows. "Now just listen."
And now, they did.
They would get Loki over here, they would reunite and they would make sure Loki was up to date before he arrived. The moment he was suited up and armoured, Tony would fly him up and drop him into the ship. From then on, Loki's famous silver tongue would do the rest of the work, they hoped.
Thor was watching and he wouldn't let his brother die and thus, to survive he must make Loki redeem his powers. He must give them back to him if he was in danger of losing his life, but on the other hand, why hadn't Thor done anything when Loki tried to kill himself all those times? This was just a risk they needed to take.
The door opened once again in Loki's room and he wanted to scream. No! No food, no shower, no nothing! But this time, they were holding a uniform and the woman who'd lent him the book had a smile on her face. He frowned slightly, not knowing what was going on.
"There seems to be a change of plans," she spoke and Loki frowned at that, as it didn't actually make anything clearer. What exactly about this was supposed to be funny? Or was she actually serious? And, in that case, was it a good or bad change of plans? Too much questions that he didn't even dare ask, as he didn't want to come across panicky. "It seems you are needed in Japan."
At that his heart beat faster and sank at the same time. He was needed? He would almost smile. If only it wasn't for the fact that he was worried that -
"Did something go wrong?" he asked, quite pushily, eyes looking into hers to detect any lie should it be there.
"There were some complications. You will be briefed on the flight there. You are requested to hurry."
"What complications?" he pressed on. He needed to hear it said: Tony is okay.
"I am not in on the full details, but I'm under the impression the Silver Demon took 'hostages'."
"Who? Who did he take?" Loki asked, quite aggressively suddenly as she wasn't getting to the point and he was getting more and more worried, which was a feeling he truly didn't know how to deal with.
"Banner and Barton," she replied after a moment's hesitation and immediately he felt a weight drop from his shoulders. He sighed softly, clearly in relief, though he wished it wasn't so obvious.
There was no time to linger on the matter and he hurried to get changed into the clothes he was given, despite how the woman was there. The clothing looked a little too plain to make him look like anything important, but at least his own clothes were in the bag he was given. As for the books? Well, they needed to stay, unfortunately. He could retrieve them later. He had no time to worry about it.
As he boarded the plane and was treated with not necessarily respect, but certainly the openness that granted the opportunity of earning some, he felt a little more relieved and certainly less on edge. He'd gone from being a prisoner to an ally of the Avengers. He'd wondered what had changed their mind.
"Will Thor be coming?" Loki asked, to which the man shook his head.
"There's been no news from your realm, no," the agent replied. "It is hoped not to be necessary if you, are present."
"You can count on that," Loki responded, though his arrogance wasn't all so true. What if he couldn't convince the Silver Demon with words? He had no magic! What if they did need Thor and he wouldn't come? Oh, the worst of it would be for Loki to need Thor's saving... once more. No, he couldn't think like that. He could do this! He would do this!
Ah, but had he not always tried to convince himself and never actually managed, in the end, to complete the task he'd set out to do? He didn't want to fail this time. He didn't want to fail Tony!
The flight was long, but Loki had enough things on his mind to distract him. He held the book he had been allowed to take - under the condition that he returned it in one piece - in his lap, though only from time to time managed to read a few sentences. He wished there was a way of contacting Tony that wouldn't be awkward. He simply wished to hear his voice, to know that truly he was fine. They'd ensured him that he was alright, but Loki didn't exactly trust SHIELD, did he? In fact, he continuously wondered what would happen if they decided to throw him out of the plane somewhere over the ocean, simply to have a safe way of getting rid of him, without anyone ever finding out. No, they wouldn't do that. Thor would know, anyway and they knew he would know. Right? He needed to stop this, he realized, but he couldn't.
His distrust ran too deeply to be simply forgotten. If only the agent that had given him the book was aboard. He could find it in him to trust her, somewhat, although he wouldn't admit it. At the very least he didn't despise her like he despised all others. And that truly said a lot. He was given food that he didn't eat and asked questions that he didn't answer. He was offered many things that he declined. And he definitely didn't sleep when they told him he should. He didn't want anything to do with these people. He simply couldn't wait to see Tony.
Once they finally landed and Loki got out he immediately regretted the somewhat eager expression that had crossed his face. Nick Fury came to greet him, an incredibly passive aggressive sneer on his face.
"You better not play any tricks," he said, a dark warning in his voice. "In case it was unclear: I got the entire Avengers here to take down a bad guy. If you become the bad guy, you're dead. Understood?"
He was looking everywhere for Tony, but he couldn't see him and not only did that made him panic, but it brought him... disappointment. Didn't Tony want to see him? No, of course not. "You have been briefed on the plane, I assume?" Fury asked, to which Loki nodded, still looking around for Tony. "We need to get you in the lab first to show you the map of the ship," he said, "as Banner is gone, we've got Stark running all his tasks too."
Relief rushed through him and he was able to reason why Tony hadn't come to meet him. Maybe he didn't know. When they neared the lab, Loki already saw Tony working through the windows. Screens were everywhere and it reminded Loki of how Tony was at home. He even had the bottle of scotch at his side. As the door opened and Loki walked in, Tony's face lit up.
He had been so busy with everything, all the maps and getting them to fit together, all the different scans and not only that, he was trying to figure out the invisibility shield. Now, however, he had some relief: Loki.
"Loki," Tony smiled, motioning for him to come over. Fury came with him, his arms crossed.
"Loki will need guards," Fury spoke, both to Tony, Loki and to the agents that listened in. "Send some."
"What about me?" Tony asked as Loki joined him. "I can take him on," he said, raising his eyebrows as he carried on to push things over screens for Loki to get the full picture.
"Too risky. Especially with that bottle over there," Fury spoke. Oh, yes, that. Tony'd broken the rules: escaped to get himself some scotch. Could he be blamed?
Tony rolled his eyes. And what if they wanted to be alone for a while? "Loki, nice to see you out of that prison," Tony spoke, smiling up at the man he'd come to love a lot. "Hope you weren't bored out of your mind... Now, if you look here, you see the ship," Tony spoke.
"The guards will be here shortly," Fury spoke and left the room, to which Tony just turned to Loki, grabbed him and pressed their lips together in a hot, wet kiss. He needed this so badly. He was so stressed it was unreal and seeing Loki in one bit was so relieving...
Loki's surprise wasn't difficult to sense and as Tony let go, it was as if Loki only then fathomed what was going on. He looked down at Tony, his teeth digging into his lower lip firmly, hurting himself. Tony wondered why he did that and he wanted to talk, but before he could say anything, he heard a sound down the hall and seconds later there were two guards on the inside of the door.
"Well, that's uncomfortable," Tony spoke, raising his eyebrows a little at the guards. "As I was saying, the ship is here, hovering above Tokyo. They have Banner and Barton. They were captured here," he pointed at a part, "and the Silver Demon stays here, apparently," he pointed at another and let out a sigh. "Really, I don't get why we're prancing about while we should just get there," he spoke, turning towards Loki. He poured himself a glass of scotch and took a few sips. "Let's take a walk, I've had enough of this," he spoke, moving his hand over the screens to minimize everything and turn them off.
The guards, however, followed them, which Tony found more than annoying and thus he made sure to walk fast and talk quietly.
"How are you?" he asked, looking sideways at Loki. "How have you been?" Loki let out a soft, annoyed noise and shook his head, shrugging. "Is that an 'okay'? Better than expected? Worse? The same?"
"It's fine," Loki spoke, though that was hardly an answer at all, of course. 'It' was fine... What was it? Of course, that was exactly why Loki said it like that, as he clearly didn't want to discuss 'how he had been', now he couldn't lie about it. Ah, that was going to be a problem when confronted with the Silver Demon? Yeah, they'd need another good think or two about that.
"I know you don't like a lot of this and probably just want to be back in your room in the Tower, but we will be back home soon," Tony said then, figuring it was useless to try and get Loki to talk about things now they were followed by these guards. It truly was a nuisance that he could do without.
"I hope so," Loki said, much to Tony's surprise, as it was the equivalent of actually admitting that he did wish to be home. Not just 'home', but with Tony.
The day was as good as over when they returned from their walk, which wasn't as private as Tony had wanted it to be. However, Tony, without shame invited Loki back to his room, which shut with quite a large iron door. The guards could leave, for the door could only open with coding that Tony knew and Tony, being the bully that he was, liked to keep the numbers from Loki.
It was only now that he turned to Loki and realised they were alone, truly alone... He thought of how he had experienced quite a good orgasm in bed here while thinking of Loki, but now... now they were together and he wanted to experience one with Loki, presumably at the same time and almost without words, their lips crashed together in what seemed to be a never ending kiss. As they finally came up for air, Tony didn't even calculate where Loki would land exactly when he pushed him backwards towards the bed hard, where he climbed over to Loki and resumed their hot, passionate kisses.
Of course there was the minor detail of Loki's wounds and Tony made a semi-important note to be careful when handling the God, when simultaneously he was pushing him into the mattress, hands finding wrists to pin above Loki's head, feet kicking apart the God's legs, wishing they were already naked. He kissed him firmly, passionately, possibly even aggressively. It shouldn't be allowed for them to spend so much time apart...
Loki hardly objected, though he could feel that it was only a matter of time before Loki's slight struggles and pulls would turn more vicious and more difficult to restrict. Ah, but he wouldn't be Tony Stark if he didn't have a solution for everything. Especially things to do with sex.
"You want this," Tony spoke, while one of his hands snaked to the bag that stood close to the bed and he yanked it closer. A moment later he'd managed to conveniently bind Loki's wrists to the headboard with a thin piece of string. Ah, that would definitely be difficult to get away from.
"What is this?" Loki asked, a sneer on his face as he looked up at the Engineer.
"Just to ensure you're not going anywhere," Tony said. "If you behave we can do it without them next time."
"Next time?! Why are you thinking-" but Loki shut his mouth, when Tony's lips crashed against his once more. And so they continued their game, which Tony seemed to effortlessly win, as they were naked within no time (Loki even sooner than Tony, apart from the shirt that was still half-on, due to the rope around his wrists).
The lacking true threats and struggles were enough proof that Loki indeed did want this and Tony took quite some satisfaction in knowing that. It wouldn't be too long now, for him to take the God's body and make him his entirely. Oh, he loved that idea... He'd been dreaming about it constantly over the past few days. Though, he rather not think about how weird that truly was.
"So, you want this the nice, normal, boring, not so painful way, or the... exciting, let's just get on with it, way?" Tony asked, looking down at the God as if he would truly consider the reply. Loki just looked at him in annoyance, clearly too embarrassed to answer. "Ah, hoped you'd say that."
Their lips crashed together over and over again and Tony pressed his naked body against Loki's. He had never been naked in front of Loki before, though the other way round had happened quite conveniently. But they were really jumping from kissing straight into sex. Oh, what did it even matter? They both wanted this and foreplay with Loki didn't sound so good in his mind.
His hands moved between Loki's legs, palms flat against the inside of his thighs, slowly prying them apart so he could move against Loki properly. Loki struggled quite some, a beautiful frown etched into his forehead. Oh, he was so amazing...
His hand wrapped around himself, his lips kissing Loki's one last time before moving back to look into the God's eyes, knowing for certain that this truly was what he wanted. This God, this bed, this moment, this sex... now. He moved a hand behind Loki's head to hold him close. "Move your legs around me," he whispered, moving himself to Loki's entrance, their eyes never leaving each other. It was only a matter of seconds of their eyes being glued together, gasps leaving the both of them and a very pained noise leaving Loki, the frown etching into his brow deeper, that they were closer than they'd ever been before.
Tony hardly gave Loki so much as a moment's rest to adjust himself as he continued to move closer, deeper. Their eyes were still locked, though the pain and slight confusion shimmered clear in the those beautiful green eyes. Ah, he hid nothing. Yet... there was something missing. Definitely something missing. He moved down to the God's ear, whispering softly: "no one has ever made you scream. You have too much dignity for it and certainly too much self-control." He came up to look into green eyes once more and pushed forward, hard, burying himself deep into Loki, who twitched and arched and... screamed. It thrilled Tony to no end and, for some reason, moved him more than he had previously expected. He had such control, such control over a man that never let his guard down, let alone freely handed over any control.
Tony went on, mercilessly, taking the God's body and claiming it, marking it his. "Loki..." he groaned, looking down as Loki's moist eyes looked back up at him. Loki continued to gasp, let out noises akin to screams and eventually moaned.
"I hate you," the God spoke through gritted teeth, right before his mouth opened in bliss as his body was so very taken by the Engineer that he, indeed, was supposed to hate. Tony's eyes shot to Loki's lips, as not only did he look beautiful, but too did he need to see the thread appear. Those words... They pained Tony, although he knew better than to believe them. Yet... where was the thread? It had to be a lie. It just had to be... right? Loki didn't hate him!
He moved closer, right when he saw the forceful pull on Loki's lips that would force them shut, as the thread was sealing him. He almost felt bad for feeling relieved. Loki's eyes shot up to look into Tony's and a moment later, they were kissing. The thread pulled Loki away from the kiss, but the God would not give up. He pushed into the kiss and Tony felt Loki's tongue slip out of his mouth for the shortest of moments, before a pained noise left him. Blood was seeping down his lips, cheeks and chin, as he was pulling so fiercely against the bounds to continuously kiss Tony, who tasted the ivory taste of blood. And found that he liked it, but that was besides the point. Loki was fighting the lie to the best of his ability; to show Tony exactly that: that he loved him.
"Loki," he whispered against the God's lips. "I know." Loki let out a pained whimper, eyes having teared up and silent tears escaping. His lips had never bled this severely and Tony could see the holes that the thread pierced, tear. "Loki, be careful, shh..." he soothed. Loki looked up at him, actually allowing Tony a look into his hurt and pain, as it so clearly displayed in his green eyes.
Soon, Loki let out another noise, somewhat surprised even and Tony saw what happened to the thread... it seemed to slip away from the wounds and after a moment all that was left were the healing wounds and the piece of dark green string that fell to the bed. It could truly mean only one thing; the curse was lifted.