Chapter 23: Nothing Escapes

ASTRAL PLANE

Something had gone horribly wrong, of that, Charles was certain. He had been forced to flee from facet to facet of Loki's unconscious mind by the spread of the sentient nothingness. It was tearing through every previous stronghold, pouring into every hidden chamber of Loki's core. At first it had seemed to be searching for something, but as the vacant presence strengthened, it became clear to Charles that the truth was much more dire. He had to find his way back. He had to warn his host, his friend, before it was too late.

AVENGERS TOWER

It was so dark outside, darker than a night on Midgard ever used to be. All the artificial lights of the remaining humans' dwellings were either masked by blackout curtains, or turned off in preparation for the night's air raid. Most of the stars were blacked out by the dark, chemical clouds that crowded the sky above. Tony, and Peter had been huddled around the computer screen on Tony's personal floor ever since Loki's breakthrough in lockup. The Trickster hadn't budged from the room either, deciding to stay so long as he was wanted, and although Tony literally did not stray from the computer for the entire evening, he also wouldn't stop turning to Loki for advice.

Loki snapped awake at the feeling of a small hand resting on his shoulder. He was momentarily disoriented by the nearly complete darkness around him. He didn't remember falling asleep on Stark's couch. Natasha watched patiently from her crouch in front of him while he adjusted.

"Age-" Loki began but the ex-assassin pressed a hand over his mouth. She put a finger to her lips to drive the point home, allowing him to note the fact that she was holding a gun in her other hand. Her gun hand swept up to indicate the picture window behind Loki. As soon as he looked, their situation became obvious. A crack that traced its spiderweb pattern down from the top left side of the window was now highlighted by an unnatural red light. It was far too reminiscent of the scannerlights of the predatory, humanoid sentinels, but different in spread. Natasha mouthed the word 'sonic' to him, waiting until he nodded in understanding to creep around the end of the couch, stopping beside the cracked picture window with her back pressed to the wall so that the curtains would shield her from an outside observer. She slid down to sit on the floor with her gun held at the ready. Loki waited for her signal before soundlessly rolling off the couch to take his position behind its convenient cover, facing her. They were being watched, probably in preparation for a raid. The next target on the List... Loki thought to himself, Why did we think that we had time? He mouthed 'Stark' to his current guard, signalling a circle over his chest to symbolize the arc reactor.

Natasha's lips thinned and she shook her head.

Loki let out a disappointed breath and leaned back against the leg of the couch, then squeezed his eyes tightly shut. He was displeased with his own decision, but it couldn't be helped. Loki then caught Natasha's eye again. She may have predicted his line of thinking, or not. It was hard to tell. She held a hand up to comunicate that he shouldn't move, pointed her gun at the listening probe, held up three fingers, then indicated the stairwell with her free hand. Loki shifted his weight as if positioning himself to flee, as she clearly intended him to do. However, just after she shot down the hovering probe, he flashed a vaguely apologetic smirk and darted towards Tony's bedroom instead.

"Loki! Get do..." Natasha lunged forward to try and grab his leg, but he was too quick, so she rolled onto her back and took out her aggravation on the next recon probe.

Loki ignored the return fire from the probe that blew apart the wall just inches shy of hitting him, and glided into Tony's room.

"God! Loki! What the hell!" Tony exclaimed, already jumping out of bed as the Trickster shut the door behind him with a casual air, if more swiftly than usual. Loki barely even bothered to smirk at the inventor's choice of words.

"It appears that your number is up," he joked, making his way in, then out of Tony's closet and throwing a pile of clean clothes at their owner. "Dress quickly; we really should be gone."

"Yeah, speaking of..." Tony said, abandoning his failed atempts to activate the homing bracelets on his wrists in favor of putting on a shirt. "JARVIS, what's the hold up? I need my suit."

No response.

"The lights were out when I woke," Loki offered.

Natasha ran into the bedroom and slammed the door shut so that she could lean against it to catch her breath.

"JARVIS killed our light sources in response to the raid siren. This is no power outage," Tony dismissed shrewdly.

"They've jammed all comunications in the tower. Our cellphones have all been bricked," Natasha reported.

"Disturbing," Tony acknowledged. "Last time I checked they were still in preliminary testing for that. ...In other news: I'm taking my pants off now. Feel free to enjoy the view."

Loki turned his back on the cheeky cyborg. "Only you are invigorated by that thought."

"You keep telling yourself that, Smokey Bear," Tony replied, tossing his sleep pants blindly aside. Natasha looked him over suspiciously, but Loki ignored it for now. "Why are we not dead? They could have taken us out with a predator drone while we were sleeping and we would neve have even known that JARVIS was out of commission."

"No idea," Natasha admitted, brushing aside whatever had been bothering her. "They appear to be using a two-pronged attack. My educated guess would be that they want to capture some of us alive."

"And those machines?" Loki inquired, tossing Stark's sweater over his shoulder to him without breaking eye-contact with Natasha.

"I managed to take out the probes on this level, but Clint reported five humanoid hostiles scaling the building before we split up. There are most likely more of them coming in from the east."

Loki paused and hazarded a look at Tony, who turned out to be decent by then, if scruffy looking. Their gazes locked for a fleeting moment before the Prince turned back to Agent Romanoff.

"Stark is their main target. Get him to his lab. I shall remain and provide a distraction," Loki decided.

"Um. Excuse me, who put you in charge?" Tony objected, walking up beside him.

"Nobody, but he's right. We need to get you into a suit," Natasha said, loading a new clip into her gun. She adressed Loki. "Those drones are outfitted with explosive ordinance. Once targeted, you'll have under three seconds to beat the drone's tactical processor before it clears the room. Are you sure that you can make it?"

"Yes," Loki confirmed, just as Tony said,"No."

Loki started towards the door, but Tony grabbed his shoulder.

"Hey! Am I seriously the only one who has a problem with this? You aren't even armed!"

Loki looked to the Black Widow. "May I?"

She shrugged and passed him a ka-bar knife she'd kept hidden on her person, somewhere...

"I am now armed," Loki announced, brushing Tony's hand away. "Now if that is all..." He waited beside the door opposite Natasha while she prepared for their charge into the battle zone.

"With a knife. Why am I not reassured?" Tony snarked.

"You have clearly forgotten who I am."

"You may be tough, but last time you fought these guys they weren't using armor piercing rounds. They know you're here, and semi-evil or not, you can't-"

Loki grabbed the front of Tony's shirt with his free hand and pulled him closer to stare him down. "Anthony, for the last time: shut up. You can and will do exactly as I tell you. That is the sole reason why you will escape here with your miserable little life. You will accompany Agent Romanoff to your lab where you will acquire a suit and head to Xavier's stronghold for reinforcements. Am I understood?"

"You called me Anthony," Tony thought aloud, visibly disturbed. Loki pushed him aside and gestured for Natasha to get on with it. She nodded and yanked the door open, providing cover fire while Loki ducked behind the couch, and managing to shoot the first human invader in the head when he peeked through the window. The Black Widow then hauled Tony into the stairwell by the back of his shirt while Loki shielded them with his magic. Two more home invaders dove in through the hole that used to be a window and split up to pen Loki in from both sides. He rolled his eyes and used his illusions to split into three perfectly identical Lokis for them to deal with. Two of him split off to attack each invader while the third flipped over the back of the couch to take out another man climbing in through the window.

The Loki on the far right was a hologram, as his opponent soon discovered when he tried to shoot him. The one in the window smirked at him, drawing his attention while the real Loki stabbed the intruder on the left, then threw the hunting knife accross the room to embed itself in his compatriot's throat. Loki took his first victim's gun and pressed it to the head of the giant, uniformed thug climbing in through the window. The man was almost large enough to rival a full grown Aesir male. Due to the odd, chemical odor underlying the man's natural musk, Loki suspected that he was another creation akin to Steve or Francis.

"Give me a good reason why I should spare your life," Loki offered.

The man let out a battle cry and moved to stab him with a hidden blade strapped to his arm.

Loki shot him, watching him fall inexplicably flailing as he did. "What a shame," he reflected, only to frown in perplexed irritation when the not-so-dead man caught himself on the side of the tower six floors down and broke in through a window. Loki turned and aimed his gun at another figure who swung in through the opening from above on a thin, black cord.

"Whoa! Hey! It's me!" Clint stated, dropping off the line and flipping in midair so that he landed upright, facing Loki.

"You're late," Loki informed him, turning the gun around in his hand so that he could hand it over grip-first.

"Um..." Clint accepted the unexpected offering. "I was busy with the team on the roof. Don't you want a weapon?"

Loki retrieved Natasha's ka-bar and wiped it off on the dead man's jacket. "I prefer knives. These men are wearing SHIELD markings."

"I noticed. They're a standard assualt team, which means we're still five shy of a full count here," Clint replied.

"And the team above?"

"Three out of ten made it in, tops," Clint confidently assured him. "Where're Nat and Tony?"

"They went ahead to fetch a suit. I was the distraction," Loki explained. "That last foe failed to perish when I shot him in the head."

"Did you miss?" Clint verified, checking the clip in his pilfered weapon.

"I did not."

"These aren't blanks, Loki. You missed."

"He did bear a notably unnatural odor..." Loki opened the stairwell door and held it for Clint.

"You first. What, you think he's a robot because you missed?"

"I did not miss him. He was no machine, more akin to your Captain. I believe the intruder may have been impervious to bullets," Loki clarified.

"Unlike Steve," Clint pointed out. "These are specialized armor piercing rounds. They'd knock even Juggernaut on his ass."

"I refuse to argue over this. You'll see the truth of my words for yourself. Stop," Loki held up a hand and stepped closer to the door to Thor and the Twins' private level. He pressed his hand to the door and a shimmer of green danced over the suface coalescing on the other side into his armoured double. The enemy soldier guarding the door turned to fire on him. He had already disappeared once again after noting the other intruder slipping into Thor's bedroom.

"My brother?" Loki verified.

"No he's-" Clint whispered, interrupting himself in realization. "Foster!"

Loki kicked into the living area and slit the first target's throat. The other was already bent over the bed. "Jane!" Loki shouted in warning.

She snapped awake and grabbed the gloved hand that closed over her throat. Her attacker reached for his gun. Seeing this, Jane grabbed the bedside lamp and started hitting him in the head with it. It didn't do much harm through his helmet, but it bought Clint enough time to run in and shoot him three times in the back.

"Hey, Doc. You okay?" Clint inquired, taking the dead man's rifle. Jane nodded through her coughing fit.

"What's this?" she rasped out.

"A SHIELD executed raid," Loki answered. "Where are the twins?"

"Don't know."

Clint pushed past Loki to check Peter's room. "Grab a coat and let's go."

Jane smiled tightly at Loki as she grabbed her polar off of the back of the door. "Thanks," she said, snatching her notebook and audiorecorder off of the dresser, and tucking them into her inner pocket on the way out. "Where to?" she asked Clint.

Clint checked the stairwell for threats then held the door open for her while he answered, "Stark's lab." He let go of the door before Loki reached it.

"He will be displeased," Loki noted, unfazed by the slight.

"Doesn't matter. We need to regroup."

"Why hasn't JARVIS initiated a lockdown?" Jane inquired, trying not to sound anxious.

"Offline." Clint padded down the stairs ahead of them only to duck back around the railing on the next landing to avoid a barrage of machine gun fire. He fired a short burst out of his own weapon before waving Loki over. "Cover me."

Loki narrowed his eyes in open skepticism, then complied.

"An explosive arrow?" he guessed, watching in his peripheral vision while Clint drew his second-to-last arrow and prepared to fire. There were three shooters grouped around the lower doorway into the dining area and they all were heavily armed.

"Yep." Clint fired the arrow into the doorframe and ducked down, covering Jane. The explosion took out half the wall when it blew, not to mention the shooters.

Loki scowled at him.

"They fucked up my nest," Clint defended, unrepentant. "Nobody screws with the nest."

"We certainly won't," Jane affirmed, looking appropriately disturbed.

Loki padded down the stairs ahead of them. He had no intention of engaging the archer in his current mood. When they were just outside of Banner's lab the real trouble struck. When Loki crept in to scout the area-despite his express wishes to avoid the Hulk's territory altogether- the hall was eerily quiet. There was no sign of the green beast, nor any attackers. Regardless, Loki could feel a telltale charge in the air that told of imminent carnage.

"We clear?" Clint questioned from the doorway, puzzled by the alien's lack of response. Loki turned back, opening his mouth to reply. He went still, his answer dying on his tongue. Another dark drop fell past his face.

"Loki?"

The next one dropped onto his face leaving a teartrail of bright scarlet blood down his cheek. He and Clint slowly looked up at the ceiling. Clint cocked his gun.

"I didn't miss." Loki shoved the archer back into the stairwell right before the bulletproof soldier dropped down off of the ceiling. One beefy arm wrapped around Loki's neck in preparation to break it, while he fired his handgun into the stairwell. Loki grabbed the augment's arm to keep him from twisting Loki's head around, and let out an indiscriminate burst of magic. It caused his attacker to stumble back a step, but he quickly recovered, which simply wasn't right. Clint popped back into view and shot the brute twice where his heart should be, with little effect.

"Well fuck," he commented. Jane let out a wordless shout in warning and he ducked out of sight. Someone had just opened fire on them from behind.

Loki released a frustrated grumble when that muscular arm once again hooked around his neck. He tightened his two-handed grip on the man's forearm and ran up the wall, using his momentum to catapult his attacker face-first into the plaster. The augment's impact knocked several chunks out of the wall, but he picked himself up off the ground with less injury than Loki would've preferred. Loki kicked him in the shoulder while he was getting up, and dove for the handgun. The augment grabbed his legs and dragged him under him, with a feral grin on his bloodied face. His teeth were all metal, as were his nails. Terrific.

Loki stabbed him through the shoulder. The augment punched him hard in the jaw, before pulling the knife out. It hurt as though Thor had struck him. The second blow, fortified by the knife's handle cast colorful lights across Loki's vision. He tasted blood. Loki kneed the brute repeatedly in the side. That winded him, at least. Then Loki reached up and lit his opponent's jacket on fire, rolling out from under him when he reared up to tear it off. The Trickster darted into Banner's lab, grabbing the gun off the floor as he went.

There were two crushed bodies lying across the floor and a third draped over the countertop. It was obvious what had dropped them there. Loki heard a muffled grunt from somewhere in the shadows. He turned back to the doorway, hoping that the Hulk was occupied for the time being. The augment was marching angrily towards him. Loki emptied the gun into his chest to slow his approach, hating the way that the bullets ricocheted off of him. Loki backed up until he hit the edge of the lab table and held out his hand, erecting a forcefield in the doorway. His attacker walked into it, then smiled in response to his grimace of pain and threw his full weight against the barrier. Loki flinched. The augment laughed and rammed into the shield repeatedly, enjoying the way it began to warp and flicker.

"If you believe that pain will subdue me, you have much to learn," Loki ground out, ignoring the drain on his nervous system as he once again reinforced the barrier. There was another growl from the shadowed lab behind him and he heard the Hulk shuffle around. Something shattered. Loki swallowed. He dared a peek over his shoulder to see a vague shape shuffling closer out of the darkness. A high-pitched sound drew his attention back to the barrier. There was a diamond-shaped device now attached to the plexiglas wall around the doorframe. Loki ducked out of the way of the explosion. It still would have knocked him straight through the glass screen of the computer terminal if a giant green hand hadn't reflexively caught him out of midair.

The Hulk roared. Loki looked up wide-eyed at the rage monster. Hulk wasn't paying much attention to him at the moment. He surged forward and slammed his other fist down on top of the charging intruder, leaving a familiar man-sized crater around his unconscious victim. Loki scrambled out of the creature's cupped hand as soon as he lowered it close enough to the lab table, rolling away to the other side. The Hulk cocked his head to one side in interest and followed after him, easily brushing the table aside as if it were origami.

"Please!" Loki internally kicked himself for shouting. "Wait. I-"

The Hulk reached out and snatched him off his feet before he could dodge him again. Loki flinched, but rather than crushing or throwing him, the large hand scooped him up and brought him closer to the Hulk's face. It was reminiscent of a child studying a baby chick. He sniffed him experimentally. Loki was too busy trying to calm his racing heart to be offended. The Hulk poked at Loki's stomach with his index finger.

"Why! What do you th..." Loki trailed off when he saw the curious, almost scolded expression on Hulk's face. "You are far stonger than I am," he cautioned instead, gently reminding both of them just how easily he could be crushed by the scientist's alter-ego. Running footsteps preceded the others' arrival.

"Holy sh-" Clint stopped just inside the lab and held out an arm to bar Jane's progress.

The Hulk huffed and placed Loki on the nearby lab table with uncharacteristic care. Clint and Jane hurried out of his way so that he could continue out of the lab without incident.

"What did I just see?" Clint questioned, watching him go.

"I haven't a clue why the beast spared me," Loki admitted, resting a hand on his stomach while he mulled it over. The way that Hulk had looked at him. It was somehow worse than his usual rage. It had almost felt as though the beast felt sorry for him. If the Hulk even had the capacity for such emotion.

"Not that anyone's complaining," Jane offered in an attempt to cheer him up. "We're almost home free."

Loki nodded absently and slid down from his perch to follow the others out of the lab. The strange confrontation had brought back a whole new set of fears that he hadn't thought to worry about until that moment.

ASTRAL PLANE

"You passed through the Void between worlds," Lord Loki stated as he circled Charles, scrutinizing every inch of him.

They were back in the clearing where Loki had had his epiphany. Charles could occasionally hear wolves off in the distance, or see a shimmer of silvery scales sliding through the trees. A great serpent was coiling and flowing through the branches like water over stone. The young professor knew enough about the legends to guess who and what that was, although he had thought the world serpent was strictly aquatic in nature. Then again, 'serpent' also meant 'snake,' and they weren't living in someone's childhood storybook.

"Yes, I did, with the help of the mind gem," Charles admitted.

"An infinity stone," Lord Loki replied with a smile. "Well, well! That almost explains it."

"Explains what?"

"There is no life inside the Void. That is not to say that nothing survives," he tilted his head, considering his own words. "It surely does."

"I don't follow." Charles frowned up at the deceased deity, feeling as though he was being tested. As oddly erratic as his behaviour was, Lord Loki did not strike him as being mentally unstable. "If that is meant to be a riddle..." Charles thought it over again. "There's a fateline locking your nephew Loki and me together. Our timelines are drawing inexorably closer. Wanda warned me that it will continue until our worlds collide- if you'll forgive the idiom. I don't think that's what you're talking about though..."

"Not one and the same issue, to be certain. Yet they are certainly related."

"Nothing survives the Void," Charles repeated aloud, thinking the words over. It reminded him of the overwhelming lack that the strange, psionic entity registered as to his telepathy.

"There is a barrier that protects our existence, a membrane upon which all of creation rests. You and Loki have both breached it, like a needle through silk. Now you've brought the thread to hold it open," Lord Loki recalled, turning to address him face to face. "Did you believe that you would pass by unnoticed?"

Charles remembered that recurring motif from Loki's night terrors: trapped in the Void, neither alive, nor dead, held in an impossible state of mere existence. Held there. His impressions of his time there always contained odd hints of intent. ...the Void does not abide such things as logic... It suddenly occurred to Charles just how unlikely Loki's reemergence was. He had fallen straight into the abyss, and in an overwhelming lack, what could there possibly be to propel him back in the direction he had come? Nothing.

"You have left a breach in the fabric of creation," Lord Loki supplied, straightening to his full height upon seeing the epiphany blossom over Charles' face. "You were followed through the breach. The darkness is coming out to play." They both looked up when the moonlight overhead was blocked out by an unnatural shadow.

"How do I stop it?"

"I think it far too late for that endeavour. All that I ask is that you keep us alive?" Lord Loki requested. Charles' brows scrunched together while he eyed the hybrid's earnest expression. "As it is, I am not even whole yet."

"Don't you mean you aren't whole anymore?" Charles verified.

Lord Loki chuckled at his innocence. "Give me time."

AVENGERS TOWER

"Captain," Loki acknowledged politely when Steve opened the door for them and held it open for him, too, "Thor." The blonde prince pulled him aside by his arm and was scowling at the minor scrapes and bruises marring Loki's pale white face and hands. "Dr. Foster is here too."

"I'm obviously fine," Jane interjected in a gentle tone from somewhere behind him.

"I would've thought that-" Loki turned sharply out of Thor's grip to aim a death glare at the pacing Iron Man. "Why have you not gone!?"

"We weren't all here yet," Tony replied, sounding as if he were already tired of arguing about it.

"We do not need to be-"

"Don't bother. 'Tasha already tried that," Peter advised.

"Then Captain Spandex over there tried to order him, which was a good laugh," Francis piped in from his perch on the far counter behind Wanda.

"Okay. Who let him out?" Clint inquired, gesturing towards the bio-weapon with his gun.

Wanda hesitantly raised her hand.

"Nevermind," he amended. "Look. Hulk is on the loose, and I'm not sure how we're going to get him back here anytime soon."

"Everyone else is accounted for?" Steve verified.

"I believe so," Sif hazarded, scaring the crap out of Loki, who hadn't noticed her stepping up behind his shoulder.

Tony did a headcount, meticulously checking people off on his fingers. "I think... Wait-Rogue?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Okay, then. All here," Stark turned to the Cap. "Once I instate a manual lockdown everyone will be locked out of the system for-"

"I know. I remember, but we can't let the enemy get control of JARVIS' mainframe," Steve voiced both their thoughts aloud. "You were right. They aren't going to stop until they wipe us all out. We have to go to ground."

A heavy silence fell over the room while everyone absorbed the seriousness of the situation. Tony let out a heavy sigh and initiated the lockdown. Six engraved crystalline chips, each attached to their own metal chain dropped out into a hidden receptacle by his knee. "This is it, guys. Uh, good luck and um..." Tony began passing out the simple necklaces, first to the Cap, then Natasha, then Thor, and the Twins.

"We'll split off in six directions. One code chip for every partnered group. We cannot reinstate mainframe access for another week and we will only be able to regain access through simultaneous use of all six code markers. Do not lose them. Do not make contact before our reinstatement date, unless there is no other alternative. If one team member is caught, they can't be allowed to endanger the group as a whole. Which is the same reason why you're all taking on separate, unannounced imperatives for the group," Steve instructed. "I'll hang around here for as long as I can and wait for Bruce. Natasha has volunteered to escort Lady Sif, Tony you're with Rogue, the Twins have-well, I guess that goes without saying- Thor, you and Jane should try and make it out of the city as discreetly as possible."

"I have no intention of leaving my brother," Thor objected.

"Don't be dramatic, Thor, this is important," Loki scolded, already feeling relieved that Charles would soon be free to resurface. It would be a lot easier to look into their latest lead without his brother hovering around him attempting to bond.

"Ah, fuck." Clint had just realised they'd been partnered together.

"Hey, I'll trade you," Tony playfully offered.

"Guys, we're on the clock," Steve cautioned.

Loki stepped away from the others for a moment and sure enough, Thor was quick to follow.

"Loki..."

"Take care, Brother. This cannot last for long," he assured the pouting royal.

"Under the circumstances, Brother, a week is far too much time."

"We shall see. Consider it an opportunity to spend time with your mortal lover."

"Loki."

"Goodbye for now, Brother," Loki gave Thor's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "For now."

Clint was already hovering impatiently by the ceiling hatch. Loki smirked at him, then strolled over to Sif.

"It seems that this is farewell again, Prince Loki," Sif told him.

"Perhaps for good this time," Loki pointed out. "And I was never a true Prince."

"That does not sound like you," the Lady Warrior replied, but she looked a bit more somber despite herself.

"Just in case it is so, Milady," Loki pulled her into a brief but passionate kiss.

"I knew it!" Tony shouted. On the inventor's right, Thor looked as though his brain might have just been shocked out of commission.

When Loki pulled away from her, Sif stared up at him for a moment, then smirked and slapped him hard. Loki laughed.

"I will miss you, Lady Sif."

"Not for long, your Grace," she replied simply.

Loki briefly wanted to kiss her again just for that. He watched, with a genuine smile as Lady Sif turned her heel and walked away to join Agent Romanoff. She let her playful mask drop as soon as her back was turned, covertly checking her pockets as she walked. Her hand found the small metallic object that he had slipped into her pocket. Wrapped around it was a sheet of paper. She dared a look back over her shoulder. Loki winked at her, still, there was a serious look in his eyes that she recognized all too well. Sif retracted her hand from her pocket and plastered a faint smile over her features, pretending nothing at all unusual was going on. She would play along with her childhood friend, for now.

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: THE NEXT DAY

"Six o'clock," Clint warned, slinging his arm around Loki's shoulders as if they were close friends and leading him around the next corner. They took cover in the alley, half hidden behind a dumpster while the Sentinel passed by on the street. Loki turned up the collar of his dark green trenchcoat, trying to pretend that his shudder was merely due to the cold. He missed his brother now more than he had in the past century.

You have to tell him, Charles advised.

"You still have not informed me of our mission," Loki reminded Clint.

You know, that I will help you as much as I can, but this is beyond me. Loki...

"First we need to find someplace safe where we can lay low for a while. I hate to break it to you, but most of Earth isn't nearly as cozy or as abundantly stocked as the Tower was." Clint headed over to the mouth of the alley to check whether or not the coast was clear.

"This would be a bad time, then..." Loki muttered to himself and to a lesser extent, Charles. His voice sounded inexplicably pained for the third time that morning.

Clint turned back to Loki with narrowed eyes. He had not even budged from his seat on a heap of half-frozen snow. "A bad time for what?"

"It is of little consequence at present. I am honestly unsure of whether or not you would care," Loki ended his sentence with an abrupt throat clearing that just may have been covering a whine, and averted his eyes. Clint made his way back to stand in front of him.

"What's wrong with you?"

"I am uncertain," He knew what Charles suspected this was, but that was far too horrible for Loki to consider at the moment, so he didn't bother to mention it.

"Goddamn it, Loki. We went through enough insane shit last night. Tell me right now or I swear to God I will shoot you!" Clint threatened at a barely contained volume.

"Since we left the tower, I have been having... It cannot be what it seems. I haven't -"

Clint cocked his gun impatiently.

"They feel almost like... contractions."

Clint's face went utterly blank. "Co- Wait. What're you? How do you even know? I mean-" The assassin floundered, his earlier anger completely forgotten.

"I cannot remember."

"Are you trying to confuse me to death?"

"No. You believe yourself to be confused, Agent Barton. Imagine how I must f-" Loki broke off and put a hand to his abdomen, gritting his teeth to bite back another cry. "They are much closer together now."

And more intense, Charles observed.

Loki ignored him. "As far as I know, I have never given birth, and yet, I can quite clearly recall the experience."

"No. You cannot be pregnant!" Clint snapped.

"I knew that I should not have mentioned it," Loki reflected, more to himself than to either of his companions. He wrapped both arms around his middle and shut his eyes momentarily, riding out the next impossible sensation. Clint was right; Loki was fairly positive that he couldn't be pregnant. Even if it were so, he wasn't showing yet which didn't bode well.

I am so sorry, Loki.

Be silent! This is all your fault Charles! Loki thought viciously.

I know. Just breathe, Charles soothed.

"This can't be!" Clint decided. "This is a joke. This is the most fucked up-"

"In what possible way do you find this amusing!" Loki snapped at him, his temper flaring. Then a whole new wave of horror washed over him. His magic was gone. "No..."

"Don't tell me. I'm done. This is my limit," Clint said pacing away from him. "I don't know what Steve was thinking. I'm out."

"Where are you going?" Loki asked incredulously, watching his only tangible support stalk away toward the mouth of the alley.

"I'm out," Clint reaffirmed.

"Wha... You can't just leave me!" Loki called in disbelief. He pulled himself to his feet to try and chase after the ex-operative, only making it three steps before the next contraction stopped his progress. This time he allowed himself a desperate little moan. He was scared. Alone. Abandoned. Confused.

You're not alone, Loki. I've got you, Charles reassured him.

Loki's only reply was a wordless wall of accusation, anger and panic that he hurled at Charles' ever-so-understanding presence. There was a brief pause between them.

You're doing well. Just breathe.

Charles Xavier! If you tell me to breathe once more, I promise I shall find a way to murder you! Loki threatened, then let out a strangled sob. There was a cold, empty feeling pouring through his veins toward his abdomen and it was so terribly familiar. His eyes flashed from blue to red to pitch black as the thing flowed and built up, taking on some strange parody of substance inside of him. That was what this was. Loki had become an unwitting conduit. The thing from his darkest nightmares was using him as an escape route. Loki arched up and screamed.

A/N: Yep. Evil cliff-hanger? Will Clint abandon our hero? Will it be a girl, a boy, or an inconceivable abomination? I am already hard at work on the next chapter, so the answers to these questions are coming soon. Don't kill me! And thanks for reading. As always, I hope to hear what you think of this?