As I promised~ Another update!
Thanks to the few who reviewed! I appreciate you all! This is last full chapter spent on Earth. Next chapter is the return to Asgard and I'm so excited! I've written it - and it'll be ready to go next week! See you guys! Let me know what you think~!
Also be sure to go to inkitt and vote on Book 1 of Distortions In Time (if you haven't already).
Chapter 88
Standing Together
He was now in zero g. Weightless. Drifting. It was like his worst nightmare, having no control and no abilities and no idea about what to do. He could aim the rocket and let it continue onward.
"JARVIS?"
"Sir – programming the missile – go – continue – primary mission canceled-"
"You're breaking up, JARVIS. JARVIS?"
He was in another world. It was hard to imagine, hard to grasp, hard to accept – but as he fell back, as his visor filled with the images of a vast darkness, an endless march of alien ships, he knew that what he saw could not be denied. Hundreds of the space worms swam about like a swarm of insects about a corpse. There were glimpses of nebulae and planets and suns he couldn't recognize – and an asteroid field which hung before a massive worm hole which seemed to thrum with ominous energy. Tony, for the first time in a long time, felt like a frightened child.
Ice began to take hold of his suit.
He was falling back now toward the rapidly diminishing worm hole, but his eyes were solely fixed on the terrifying sight before him.
He would never forget. He would never forget.
-0-0-0-
Watching the black speck fall from the now blue sky, Natasha heaved a sigh of relief and sagged back against the concrete wall against which she now half-sat, half-laid. At a familiar roar behind her, the woman twisted her head to the side and realized that the Hulk had joined her. Together they watched as the suit continued to free fall.
He's not flying – he's falling. The suit isn't working...? Natasha tilted her head and sighed again.
She turned to the Hulk, "Hey, big guy. You see the loud-mouth over there – falling? Think you can do me a favour and catch him before he hits the ground? I'll owe you one."
With teeth-bearing grin more suited to a whale shark, the Hulk roared, "Puny human!" and bounded off. Somewhere over her ear piece, she could hear another update from Hawkeye. Apparently the army and SWAT and SHIELD were managing to regain large portions of the city. Reinforcements were coming in from Washington on a few scrambled carriers and the Canadians over the border were offering aid.
This, she mused, has gone much better than I thought.
Below her, the concrete began to shift as an explosion resounded below
Or maybe not.
[...and fight onward in hope...]
[...the treasure so hard won...]
[...and those seconds crawl as hours...]
[...for the moments carry the weight...]
Allowing himself to be propelled along with the expanding bubble of debris which had once constituted the upper level floor of Stark Tower, Loki swung a little in midair, battering aside pieces of grey rock, wood furniture and rags of fabric. Below him, the building receded rapidly. It guttered now like a dying candle, blackened and smoking and crackling with unused electrical impulses. Here and there, sparks flew and small fires blazed. Parts of the flooring had disappeared as well in certain section, baring lower floors to the sun.
Around him the debris was starting to lose momentum – as was he. Most fell between the tall buildings of the city onto the now mostly empty roads littered with destroyed vehicles and spaceships and the mangled remains of dead bodies – human and Chitauri alike. Loki saw no sign of the mercenaries which Thanos had hired to aid him in battle.
They were probably with the advancing force, he thought. He glanced upward. The wormhole was gone. No more will come... today.
Loki was now passing by the edge of a lower roofed building and, reaching out his arm, he caught hold of a railing and pulled himself to relative safety. Glancing down, he caught a glimpse of red and blue and white and the metallic flare of armour. Thor and the Captain. Steve. They were standing and looking upward, waving and pointing. Loki followed their gestures and noticed that the great green beast – the Hulk, they called him – was carrying down an old man whose face Loki thought he recognized from his dreams and the familiar red-head of the assassin woman. Both of them appeared to be unconscious. Laying his burdens down by the Iron Man who now rested in relative comfort between two scrap heaps of unrecognizable metal, the Hulk straightened and gazed upward.
It was Flarathir, descending.
A master, Loki had told Natasha. There is no mistaking it, he thought as he watched the old man manipulate the wind to slow his descent. He walks on air, he commands the winds, he is able to fight in the face of losing limbs... He too sees the colours of the magick, Loki's red eyes hardened until they glimmered like cold rubies. How can he then despair? What hopelessness did he embrace to descend to this level of madness? Perhaps we will never know.
"Loki!" Thor yelled, blue eyes wide as he recognized his brother's protection barrier stretching across their heads.
Shimmering blue and white, it looked like a fragile, delicate thing, but Loki knew that this working, anchored with six sigils hastily scrawled along the concrete rooftop wall of the building upon which he stood, would hold against at least one powerful attack. Leaping forward, high and clear of the building and its sigils, Loki landed on the protection barrier briefly.
"Be careful!" Thor's voice was nearly drowned in another round of artillery.
Loki gave Thor a grim smile and nod before turning and leaping upward. Don't worry, Thor, he swung the Chitauri energy spear and drew upon the ice of his ancestors. I am not alone.
[Can you not hear it?]
[...it is the call...]
[...it is the song...]
[...the Heimsrsal...]
The clear melody of power wrapped about the young warrior mage as soared upward, propelled by the force of power within his barrier. In his mind's eye, he could see the warping of reality about Flarathir, who looked more like a black smoking arrow than a mage. Blood and fire and wind.
But I am different, Loki told himself.
Like a mother and child in one, the Heimrsral reached down.
[...we all work together, you see...]
[...in the end, the spirits of the For-Eldra...]
[...the Souls of the Realms...]
[...all, all join...]
[...as one...]
They were drawing closer, and Loki could see Flarathir's glinting black eyes now. Deep in their depths, something familiar glimmered: fear.
What does he see?
[...all, all join as one...]
[...to bear this burden together...]
Loki's spirit burned with a cold light. His motions, his movements, the twirl of his fingers spoke of grace as he called upon the power of water and light and ice. Grace and power. Power filled the slight frame of the warrior mage.
Flarathir, for the first time in a long time, saw – he saw and understood. The red eyes burning with the fire of a thousand stars, the blue skin shining with the lines of a long lost royalty, the hands twisting the lines of water which soared upwards. And beyond the body–
Beyond the body, the blinding light of his soul. This child, he thought, this child carries more than destiny on his shoulders.
If this is to be the end, he thought disjointed as his blade of wind met Loki's blade of ice, it is a good one.
[...we are not alone...]
Loki, however, was not interested in counter attack. Only barely deflecting Flarathir's wind blade, Loki cut forward, grabbed Flarathir, and held on for grim death. Even though both men lost their momentum and began to fall together, Loki paid no heed, refusing to let go of the now flaring and burning mage. Pinning the man in the right shoulder with the thin bladed end of his spear and so disabling his working arm, Loki raised his free hand now formed in the Jotunn dagger of ice and stabbed downward.
The thin blade of ice, reinforced by Flarathir's own wind and the power which now coursed through Loki, sliced easily through Flarathir's robes to pierce the thin chain mail beneath. Gritting his teeth, Loki stabbed the mage three more times as the two fell back toward the barrier. Each time, Loki felt a surge of strength.
It's you, isn't it? He whispered to the world.
...we stand together, Other-Soul...
...strike now and free of us this threat...
...strike a blow to the heart of the dark...
...fulfill your destiny...
Beyond the barrier, he could see Thor, with Mjolnir in hand, tensed and ready to fight, but Loki had no time to call on his brother. Focusing down, Loki raised his ice dagger again. With each blow, the knife in his hand grew – and as the two exploded through the barrier, shattering it into shards of magick light with the force of their combined strength, there was only a column of ice where Flarathir's heart used to be.
For a moment there was only his breath.
Inhale.
Exhale.
There was only the light of the stars and their twinkling, wobbling, melodies sung in ancient tongues, understood by the soul alone. There was a rainbow of colour which bathed the world until all that was physical seemed like lines drawn in smoke. There was only the cold and the ice –
Inhale.
Exhale.
Ice covering his hands. Ice splintering as he pulled back. Ice all about, spiraling out in ancient Jotunn spell arcs. Ice forming the Jotunn letters and sigils which he had learned from Elska.
Inhale.
Exhale.
There was also Flarathir. Flarathir's dark eyes which were fixed upon Loki's face as though unable to tear his gaze away. Such dark eyes that with every second lost their light.
And yet...
And yet...
Inhale.
Exhale.
Flarathir smiled.
He smiled.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Loki drew himself to his feet in an ungainly fashion, seemingly unable to find the ground beneath his feet. He staggered back several paces, his breath coming fast and harsh.
It's done, he thought. It's done.
Inhale.
Exhale.
It was all crashing down now as the reality of the physical began to reassert itself. Loki instinctively sought the warmth which suddenly surrounded him. Thor's arms and hands. Thor's voice, grounding him.
"Mm-"
"Shhh." Thor said. "Sit."
"I'm-" Loki tried again.
"Rest," Thor said over and over again. "Rest."
When Loki finally began to recognize his now very scuffed black boots (standard SHIELD issue), torn black pants and shirt, he realized that Thor and he were sitting side by side on a pile of stone rubble. Not entirely stone, Loki thought, as he caught sight of a crumpled paper cup, a piece of soft fabric which looked like it was attached to a chair. The remains of another life.
Not all is lost, another part of him which sounded like Frigga, like Thor, spoke up. Life was saved today. Life beyond your reckoning.
Thor's hand squeezed Loki's shoulder in a familiar, comforting fashion.
"You have returned."
"Yes," Loki glanced over at his brother and noticed that only now was Thor's eyes showing some signs of relief.
He was worried. Loki smiled tentatively at his brother, the edge of his thin lips turning slightly upward and his dark eyebrows lifting.
"Again," he said.
"We won," Thor looked around at the scene before them – at Natasha who was getting to her feet, at Selvig who still lay unconscious, at the Iron Man whose helmet was being carefully peeled away by the Hulk and the Captain. "Somehow, it doesn't feel like winning."
"It never does."
"What will we do now?" asked Thor.
"Go back home, I suppose," Loki shrugged with a deep sigh. "There is much for us to do ahead."
"You still wish to return with the Tesseract – and the Scepter?"
"Perhaps not both," Loki glared down at the blue hands before him now clasped before him. "Asgard may not be safe for both of them."
"The Vault certainly isn't," Thor frowned. "Remember those... those Jotunn invaders? Back before I was exiled – the reason why we went to Jotunheim in the first place? If they could get in, who knows who else could enter Asgard unnoticed?"
"About that," Loki scratched his head.
"What?" sighed Thor, giving Loki an incredulous look. "Do not tell me this was one of your schemes, Loki!"
"I did not..." Loki admitted slowly and in shame. "It's a long story... but in short... I feared for you. I feared for Asgard and the throne. I did not think you were ready and I had no one to turn to – I felt – I felt so helpless. It was like watching a comet fall and having no method to stop it and-" Loki buried his head in his hands and rubbed his face in vain attempt to steady his still over-stimulated nerves and emotions. "It was a scheme... but I did not intend it to harm any."
"The Jotunn were harmed."
"Yes," Loki said, voice muffled. "I did not care then."
"And now?"
"I do not know."
"That is why you were exiled?"
"No, no," Loki said with a sigh. "Well, perhaps, that played a part in it. Using the Bifrost to completely eradicate Jotunheim was the main reason. It is my fault... It all went wrong, terribly wrong."
For a moment there was silence as Thor digested this new information. The blond-haired Crown Prince looked at the leather-strapped handle of Mjolnir and thought of his new life on Earth, of Jane, of Hawkeye and the Black Widow and Steve, of SHIELD, of the Loki beside him.
"But in the end," Thor said slowly, "it turned out for the best, didn't it."
"You think so?"
"I know so." Thor sighed, "I mean, you were exiled and somehow ended up thrown to the Void and tortured and imprisoned and Norns know what else... but I learned much from my stay here. I grew. I became a... a better man, I think. I hope. I needed this lesson."
Loki raised his head and looked at Thor curiously.
"I wasn't ready to be king," Thor admitted. "I was afraid but I hid it. I felt inadequate, so I pretended. I pretended to not care about what did not come naturally to me. I focused on what I thought I could mend – the Jotunn problem, the security of Asgard."
"We were both wrong," Loki smiled ruefully.
"Yes," Thor grinned, "but we can improve. Always."
A pause.
"You remember the first day we met?" Thor asked.
"Hm."
"You were someone who had lost all hope. I remember your eyes," Thor's voice grew soft as he drew on the memory. "I looked at you and I sensed within you a darkness, a despair. I thought I could mend it..."
"It's a fault of mine, I suppose," Loki sighed, "to see the worst in people, to expect the worst, to imagine the worst outcome possible."
"You had been raised to see the world in such a way-"
"It was my decision as well - a burden I refused to let go-"
"At any rate," Thor mused, "you grew up fearful and alone."
"You don't know how I grew up," Loki reminded his brother mildly. "I lied quite a bit on that point."
"Wherever you were," Thor shook his head, "I know you were hated and disregarded because of who you were – are – a Jotunn of – of small size. And you were fearful of being found so you hid the truth of your ancestry, the colour of your skin, and you could never speak of the truth with anyone. You never told Mother... Father... me. So, in the end, I think you were always alone." Thor's blue eyes glinted. "But not anymore."
"No," Loki gave Thor another small quirk of a smile, "not anymore."
"See," Thor shifted back and gave Loki an evaluating look. "You would not have so easily said that before! I see that there is indeed a difference in you since the last time we parted... and since the time we first met."
"Well," Loki stopped and then started again. "I suppose some things have changed for me as well."
"Consider your course of action, Loki," Thor gripped his brother's shoulder and looked Loki in the ey. "You chose to come here in the face of certain death. You found some sort of courage – a desperate courage fueled by hope." Thor sighed. "You speak of your failure to tame me. I speak of my failure to support you. In the end, I could not give you this."
"I couldn't teach you common sense," Loki pointed out. "Perhaps we had to learn for ourselves. Perhaps we needed to hear it from a certain person." The dark-haired man added ruminatively. "Mal. Jane."
"Mal?" Thor raised a blond eyebrow. "You have not spoken of this person before..."
"She is gone," Loki said softly and his green eyes rose to the blue skies above sadly. "I do not think I will meet her one the shores of the living again."
"I am sorry."
"I as well."
There was a long silence after that punctuated by distant wails of mechanical vehicles and the occasional blast and returning spatter of a gun. The two Princes leaned back and watched occasional wisps of grey haze drift past the blue sky.
A creaking and clanking broke the newborn quiet.
"Hey," Iron Man said tiredly. "Shwarma?"
[...this...]
[...the weight of destiny...]
[...we all share...]
A much needed post-battle chat. I hope you guys enjoyed!
Let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading!
-KI
p.s. Lately I've been playing Dragon Age 2 (XBOX 360) and Fantasy Life (3DS). Gosh. Anyone love the emo psycho-ness of Anders and the awesomeness of VARRIC?! hashtag making dwarves attractive hashtag writers rule hashtag this vid gamer regrets nothing