As promised, here it is, right on time! I was in such a hurry to post the last chapter that I forgot to post the answers to the references in chapter 74. You will find them below this chapter.

The theme song is "The High Road" by Three Days Grace.


Chapter 76: Checkmate

Her hands glowing with magical energy, Loki leapt into the air and dove at Pierce, hands outstretched to break his protective bubble. With plenty of time to react, Pierce shifted the full force of the spell towards her. She bounced off it harmlessly, but he was only saved from decapitation by an early warning spell, which shifted him out of the way. He spun around, only to find the original Loki wielding his naginata, well within the confines of the protective spell.

Pierce hurled a fireball at him quickly, but Loki was faster, raising a wall of ice between them. Before it could be melted, his counterpart reappeared on Pierce's other side, an attack spell at the ready. It was all he could do to react in time with a counter-spell.

Steve had managed to clear out a good corner of the room, protecting the ladder to the catwalk system. He caught his shield as it returned to him, and stopped to catch his breath and reassess the situation. When he looked up at the cause of their grief, he was surprised to see Femme Loki fighting the amateur sorcerer, and clearly showing him up. He blinked, and suddenly it was Loki's male form, swinging out with spear and kicks, keeping Pierce on his toes.

Looking across the room, Steve saw Thor and the Hulk, busy wading their way through the heavier portion of the monsters. Tony, in his latest Iron Man suit, hovered towards the ceiling, firing short energy blasts when he could get a shot in safely. He dropped to the ground next to Steve with a metallic thunk.

"Am I seeing double?" he asked Steve bluntly.

"Not unless I am," he shook his head. They watched the strange fight a few moments, trying to discern if either form was present at the same time as the other. "Do you think he... she... They need help?" Steve asked.

Tony gave a shrug, which was exaggerated by his armor. "You go help Blondie and the Jolly Green Giant. I'll see if I can get a shot in at the book while the punk is distracted," he suggested.

Steve nodded and threw his shield towards the small crowd of creatures that were currently trying - rather unsuccessfully - to gang up on Thor.

Lifting carefully into the air, Tony maneuvered his thrusters until he was hovering thirty feet above the podium. From this angle, he was almost certain that both Lokis existed at the same moment, for just an instant as they switched. He could also see that they were slowly drawing Pierce away from the book, slowly enough that he wouldn't realize they had been separated until it was too late. Tony decided to take advantage before the idiot wizened up.

He put his hands together, palms out, and fired a double blast of energy at the grimoire and the wood podium it sat on. The podium burst instantly into flames, and for a moment Tony thought he had succeeded. But the fire quickly extinguished, leaving the book, untouched, atop a pile of ashes.

Unfortunately, this shattered Pierce's distraction. He dove for the book, clutching it to his chest and visibly burning his hands in the process. Loki, currently in his original incarnation, pressed the advantage easily, unbalancing his opponent with a feint and then knocking his legs out from under him with the blunt end. In a flash, he had Pierce pinned to the ground, the tip of the long blade pressed against the pale leather of the spell book.

"Give it up, Pierce," he growled. He stared down at the boy, and saw for the first time that was all he was: a boy, scared, exhausted, and used by something he could not begin to understand. He could tell that the book had been drawing from Pierce's personal energy, a dangerous tactic that made it painfully clear that he was nothing more than a pawn. "Give us the book, and you can walk away from this," he lied.

"No!" Pierce shook his head frantically. "No, it's mine, it was given to me!" his voice rose in pitch and volume until he was raving. "You can't take my destiny away from me!"

Loki pressed his lips into a thin line, and transferred more of his weight onto the spear tip, digging it into the book's cover. "No, but I can end it prematurely," he returned wryly.

Pierce tried to wiggle out from under the pressure of the attack, but found that he was suddenly frozen to the floor, ice locked around his hands and the book. He cried out as Loki pressed harder, and a small defensive shield appeared around the book - but not the boy. Loki poured his magic into the spear he held, channeling it to fight against the resistance, and watched as the boy's life was slowly drained to power the counter-attack.

First he went pale...

...then grayish...

...his eyes rolling up in his head...

...and then the fingers clutching the book loosened.

The spell suddenly disappeared, but Loki pulled back his spear before it actually cut into the book itself. The boy was dead. Without someone to read the grimoire, it was just a block of harmless paper.

Without direction, a good portion of the creatures still fighting the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America decided that discretion was the better part of valor. They went running for the exits, only to be met by SHIELD agents armed with reverse-engineered Chitauri weapons. Disorganized and panicked, the remaining monsters were quickly mowed down.

Tony came to land next to Loki, who had not looked away from the grimoire. "Sorry to crash your party," he said, lifting his face plate.

Loki finally looked up, smiling grimly. "No, it was the edge I needed."

He looked around the room, watching Steve converse with the backup forces as Agent Hill climbed down from the catwalk. Thor let Mjolnir fall to his side with a heavy clunk. The Hulk made a tired, half-hearted swipe at him, which Thor dodged with good humor, and then collapsed. His form shrunk to that of Dr. Banner, his clothes in tatters.

Loki waved his hand in Bruce's direction, restoring his clothes to their original state.

"Thanks," he said groggily, making as if to locate his glasses before realizing they were already on his face. Thor lumbered over and helped him to his feet. They both surveyed the carpet of fantastical bodies they had strewn about them, and then looked to their friends.

"Where's Natasha and Clint?" Bruce asked suddenly.

Loki ground his teeth and turned away.

"Lady Natasha was injured—not by your hand—" Thor added quickly at Bruce's horrified expression. "I believe Barton took her away to be healed."

Tony watched the look on Loki's face, saw the toll it had taken on him to stay behind and fight while who knew what happened to Natasha. "I'll find out which hospital," he volunteered, setting Jarvis to work.

Steve and Agent Hill came up to the small group standing around Pierce's body and the grimoire. Maria rattled off the name of the hospital automatically.

Tony looked grim. "That's a long way out," he commented.

Hill nodded. "But they have SHIELD clearance. They will be better equipped to treat Agent Romanoff considering her... enhanced physique."

"How far?" Loki asked, his hands balling into fists.

"We can reach the hospital in approximately two minutes, sir," Jarvis piped up from the suit. "Four if you carry him."

"That won't be necessary," Loki said mysteriously, and then turned back to look at the grimoire with a mix of hunger and revulsion.

"We can't let you use it, Loki," Agent Hill said firmly.

He raised an accusatory eyebrow at her. "That's funny, I was just thinking the same thing about SHIELD. It is a dangerous magical artifact that you have no idea how to control. You have something of a bad record with such items," he sneered.

"Well excuse me for not trusting you, especially when you just killed a boy-" Hill began

"Firstly," Loki interrupted, "As I said before, he was far from innocent. Secondly, I did not kill him, the grimoire did—"

"Guys, stop!" Steve held out his hands in a pacifying gestures. "Now is not the time for this argument, we can do that later. Don't worry, Loki," he said somberly. "I've seen more than once what can happen when something like this falls in the wrong hands..." he looked at Maria. "Or even the right ones. I will personally ensure that it is secured and not tampered with."

"Thank you, Captain. I shall trust your discretion in this matter." Loki gave him a quick bow, something Steve guessed was the Asguardian equivalent of a salute. He turned to face Tony. "Let's go," he said, striding towards the nearest exit.

Tony followed after, his footsteps heavy and metallic. "Ok, but how are you..." he stopped mid-sentence as he watched a strange vehicle materialize from thin air in front of Loki. It looked like a futuristic motorcycle, if in the future motorcycles had no need for wheels or an engine. It floated a foot above the ground, and barely dipped when Loki swung his foot over and sat down.

"I'll follow you," he explained. "This should be up to speed."

"Ok," Tony said skeptically, lowered his faceplate, and took off. He instructed Jarvis to track Loki and make sure he was following so that he could focus on flying. The city rushed by beneath them, glowing in the darkness. Tony glanced behind him, hoping Loki wouldn't be too visible. New York was long since accustomed to his night-time joy rides, but there might be a fuss if he was seen being chased. To his relief, in the darkness Loki was barely visible. From the brightly lit streets, it would be almost impossible to see him at the speed they were traveling.

Two minutes and five seconds later, they landed on the hospital's helipad. Tony turned to see Loki's vehicle disappear, and the man himself wobble on his feet. "Steady there, Harry Potter," he grabbed his arm for support. "If you had told me you were low on juice, I could have carried you."

Loki shook his head, brushing off Tony's gauntleted hand. "Too slow," he gasped, short of breath. "Which way?"

Tony pointed out the doors to the elevator, and thought he heard Loki groan before taking off at a run. As he waited for the doors to open, he shot Tony a look of gratitude. "Go check on Pepper, Darcy and Lady Jane," he reminded him.

"Next on my list!" Tony agreed as he took off, wondering when Jane had earned the title Lady in Loki's book.

As if the trip down the elevator wasn't agonizing enough, it seemed to take forever, stopping at several floors before reaching the ground level. He followed the signs on the walls that directed him to the emergency department at almost a run. Finally, he spotted the doors marked "Emergency Room: No Access."

"Lucas!" a familiar voice called out as he rushed past a room full of people in various stages of distress. Loki paused, somehow knowing the address was for him. When he looked, he saw Clint getting up from one of the chairs. He was already dressed in civilian clothing.

"Lucas?" Loki asked.

Clint shrugged. "Tasha's idea. We had to tell them you were probably coming. You can't go in there," he reached out to stop Loki when he moved to proceed.

'What do you mean I can't go in?" Loki growled through clenched teeth.

Clint did not back down. He didn't even blink. "Nobody can. She's in surgery, Lucas. No one is allowed in."

The message finally got through to Loki, and he collapsed into the nearest chair, staring at the doors. He wanted to ignore Clint, to rush through the doors and into wherever they had Natasha and... and what? he asked himself. It's not as if you can do anything for her. For perhaps the thousandth time that day, he cursed himself for never bothering to learn the healing arts.

Sighing, Clint sank down to sit next to him. He fidgeted, turning his phone over and over in his hands.

"Did they say what was wrong? Why it was... why she was hurt so badly?" Loki asked.

He shook his head. "Best guess, there was something that..." he looked around the room of people, too wrapped up in their own catastrophes to notice. "Something blocking her ability to heal at her normal rate. The injuries were pretty consistent with what a normal person would have experienced."

Loki turned to look at him. "Details?"

Clint returned the glance, feeling a strange sense of deja vu. Here he was, reporting to Loki again. It didn't feel as uncomfortable as he thought it should. There was just too much at stake. "Her jaw is broken, but just a hairline fracture. A few of her ribs broke pretty badly, and that's why they're in surgery. They don't think any of the pieces pierced her lungs, because she wasn't having trouble breathing, but they want to check and be sure while they're patching things up. Even if she does respond normally..." he checked the surrounding people for signs of listening, "...they need to put the pieces back in order before they heal together wrong."

Letting out a long breath, Loki rubbed his hands over his face.

"She should be out of surgery in half an hour or so," Clint said hopefully. "But she'll be unconscious for another-" He jumped as the phone in his hand beeped. Checking it, he saw it was a text message from Darcy.

Tony just got here. He said you went to the hospital with Natasha. Are you ok? What's going on?

He cussed, torn between duties. "I have to go," he realized aloud. "Darcy's freaking. Do you have your phone?"

Loki reached into an empty pocket of his jacket and pulled it out.

"Call me when she gets out, ok? And Lucas..." he paused, feeling like he needed to say something. He just looked so damned defeated. "You made the right choice. She would have respected you less if you had done otherwise."

Loki pressed his lips together, fighting an unfamiliar surge of emotion. "Thank you," he said simply, and when he looked up, Clint was gone.

Now, there was nothing left but to wait.


A/N: Originally, this was two chapters, but the fight ended up being shorter than I expected, and I didn't want you guys to have to wait longer to find out what happened to Natasha.

I actually wrote the next chapter last November, so I only needed tweak it a little. I've done that, and written the next chapter as well! So I will post next Wednesday, and the following chapter a week from now. Not going to promise anything beyond that, though.

As promised, here are the answers to the three references:

meowington correctly guessed the first two, that

"Everybody MOVE" was from the Princess Bride

and the lighter/gun joke was referencing Sherlock.

No one got the Atlantis reference, which was admittedly a little more obscure. There's a scene where the commander gives a stirring speech and then says they're all depending on Milo, at which point Packard drawls "We're all gonna die." Thus, Clint's response to Steve & Thor's votes of confidence in Loki.