Loki entered the lab without a shred of caution, his worry overtaking his sense of self-preservation. He had to duck to avoid a fisted hand coming towards his face. He struck low on his assailant, sharply to the abdomen, taking his breath away and dropping him to the floor. He wanted the drop his foot onto the man's neck to crush his windpipe, but felt a strong tendril of magic pulling at his foot, staying further violence. "This is most inconvenient..." He muttered, realizing that the Allfather hadn't taken his promises on faith. It seemed he was able to defend himself when attacked, but he physically could not go the extra step to actually kill anyone.
He heard a grunt to his right and saw as Jean struggled with two more masked attackers, one at either side of her. Tony was in the far corner of the lab, stuffing his perp headlong into the eyewash station.
Loki moved over to Jean to help her, but when he tried to conjure a ball of fire to shoot at the man in front of Jean, he felt that same magical rubber band snap back his hand.
"Oh, this is too much! I am defending her!" Loki cried out, looking up to the sky, praying that the Allfather was listening.
Jean, in the meantime, had neutralized her two attackers by ducking at just the right moment, as they knocked each other out.
Tony ran over to Loki, angry..."what's the deal, where is your mojo when we need it?!"
"He can't. His magic is on lockdown remember?" Jean yelled over the alarms.
"She is quite correct. I can only defend my own person. And I cannot attack, even to defend someone else apparently." He replied, looking back and forth to them shamefaced.
"Well, we have to get you out of here Loki, they are here for you, and you can't help us."
When they finally got outside, they were not prepared for what awaited them. All of the base personnel were standing in a group, ringed by a dozen of the masked men. One of whom, held a gun to Darcy's head, while another had a tight grip on Jane. Steve Rogers lay unconscious on the ground, and Jean could hear and see the shuttering of helicopter blades against the din of the sirens.
"Hand the alien over and we will leave...", spoke the man who held the gun on Darcy.
Jean felt Loki start to step forward, and she shook her head.
"No." She yelled loudly.
"No? Okay, you obviously don't think I am serious..." He said, as he pressed the gun roughly into Darcy's temple, caucusing her to whimper and squirm.
"You are going to be okay Darcy.." Jean said calmly, trying to catch her eyes.
"No you aren't Darcy...you are going to die, and then your friend Jane here is going to die...and so on and so forth until we get what we want."
Loki stepped forward then, out of Jean's reach.
"I will go with you. Leave these people alone."
She whispered, "No Loki..."
He didn't look back at her but stopped and whispered urgently,
"There are too many of them Jean...these people are scientists, not soldiers."
She stared at his what she could see of his face, grim in that moment, ready to sacrifice himself and sighed so deeply that she felt like she had just emptied her lungs. She knew that they would kill them all anyway, once they had Loki. She closed her eyes for a millisecond, just long enough to take a roll call of their attackers. 10 men with big guns surrounding the group, one leader, 4 large choppers waiting, with 2 men each waiting inside. Steve was knocked out, Loki couldn't fight...it was just her and Tony...without his suit. It was too many. She made her decision before she even opened her eyes again, before her heart pulsed one more beat.
She stepped forward, snapping off the band on her left wrist. She stopped long enough to press it into Loki's hand, and whispered something in his ear. Her words surprised him, but it was her eyes that shocked him. They were glowing red, like fire. He could hear Tony running up behind them screaming, "No Jean!", and his mouth fell open in shock as she rose up off the ground with her hands splayed at her sides, and all hell broke loose. She was magnificent to see, her hair lit up with a fire that seemed to consume her, and yet at the same time wasn't burning her. Loki was absolutely horrified, and at the same time, he couldn't remember ever seeing anything so beautiful as the light that emanated from her. He realized that she was the light, amber in some places, and fiery red in others. The heat emanating from her was enough to make him take a hesitant step back, for fear that he himself would combust.
Jean stared straight ahead. She pointed her hand at the leader, and suddenly twisted it sharply, snapping his neck so quickly that he fell to the ground like rag doll, the gun discharging harmlessly into the dirt. In the next instant, almost a dozen more men hit the ground as her eyes moved over the group. One of the helicopters attempted to take off, but she motioned both her hands down, holding it in place with sheer will. She raised her right hand again to kill the pilot, but Tony finally snapped to action, finding his voice.
"No, we need to question them! You can't kill them all!" He screamed, trying to pull at her feet, trying to anchor her somehow.
She simply quirked her lip, looking down at Tony.
"We only need a few of them..." Her tone malicious and curt.
"Jean, this isn't you...it's the Phoenix talking...this is murder."
"Do you think any of them would have thought twice about killing everyone here! Don't presume to lecture me!" Her eyes were blazing now, annoyed at the rebuke.
Suddenly, movement from one of the other helicopters caught her eye but Tony tugged her harder. Annoyed, she relented.
"Fine." She spat out, rolling her eyes at Tony. She mimicked the motion of crushing with her hands, and the blades of all the helicopters bent down, scraping the sides of the fuselage as they continued to try to spin. It made a horrible screeching noise of metal on metal, but it also served to cage the rest of the assailants as the blades damaged the doors of the choppers, finally coming to a halt, engines sputtering.
Jean slowly lowered herself to the ground and gave Tony a testy look.
"There...happy?" She didn't wait for an answer as she strode over to Steve, bending down to attend to him. She placed her hand gently on his temple, waking him with the slightest brush of her energy, her face almost tender, her anger bottled back up.
He opened his eyes in confusion, clearing as he looked up into her fiery eyes.
"Oh Jean, no..."
She smiled sadly at him, but lightened her voice, "it's going to be okay Cap, I promise." She then offered him her hand, gingerly pulling him up to a standing position.
Tony and Loki approached cautiously, as the survivors quickly moved away muttering words of relief and thanks to Jean, who simply nodded in acknowledgement. Darcy leapt at Jean, throwing her arms around her and dissolving into tears.
"Thank you...you...you saved our lives!"
Jane stood quietly, finding the courage to ask a question of her savior.
"Did you have to kill so many of them?"
Jean's eyes flashed as she looked at her then, standing stock still, before answering simply, as though talking to a child.
"No, I didn't have to. But, he had a gun to Darcy's head, he was threatening you...all of you. I did what had to be done. If you knew what they were planning to do, you wouldn't question me."
"But..."
Loki interrupted, "Jane, she did what was necessary to save the lives of all our co-workers...if she had hesitated, more people would be dead. You and Darcy included."
Jean nodded her agreement without looking at Loki, and then walked away from the group, ignoring the looks of concern.
Tony tried to stop her,"Hey, where are you going?"
"To my room...I've had a hell of a day." She said without sparing them another glance. As she passed by Loki, he held out the band to her, unsure of what to say. Never had he felt at such a loss for words.
She stopped mere inches from him, reaching up to rub the bracelet between her fingers and felt him using his telepathy to try and delve into her thoughts. She smirked at his clumsy attempt, but decided to give him a peek into her mind, at what hid behind her eyes. He gasped at what he saw there in her memories...an ocean of water crushing her, confusion and destruction, he saw the embers of her soul, always burning, never dimming, never forgetting. He saw her standing on a pile of metal as the winds of her rage blew men to dust around her. He saw the tears fall down her face as she devoured the life force of the man she had loved from the time that they were children. He saw her madness, and felt her hunger. And just as suddenly, it stopped. He blinked again, and her eyes were once again green and clear, calm and serene.
"Oh, I don't think I will be needing my crutch anymore, my Prince, but thanks just the same." And she reached up and chucked him under the chin playfully, as though he were a dutiful child. He was completely flabbergasted. His heart beat thrummed loudly in his own ears as he watched her walk away.