The memory’s
He had been found out, their most crucial pawn had been compromised. He was of no use to them anymore now that the heroes of Earth had their eye on him. They would find other ways to get to Earth, they still held direct control over the pawns who had the tesseract after all. So when the chattering stopped Loki was left with one simple order. Die. And then they left. He can no longer feel their presence in his mind, only the pain they're leaving him with.
Once more a cry leaves his lips, and Thor rounds upon Tony and the rest in attendance.
“Get this infernal glass cage open now!”
Steve’s eyebrows knit together. “We can’t go against Fury’s orders, Loki is to remain in containment!”
Thor grabs Steve's shoulder, little sparks flying from his fingers and illuminating the rage on his face. If Loki were not dying on the floor he would have found this whole situation funny, if he wasn’t dying that is. He gasps for air, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. Thor turns to look at him, before he turns back to Steve and pins him against the wall of the room.
“You find a way to open that cage right now or I swear on the Allfather there shall be no helicarrier left to contain him in!” Steve forces Thor's hand away, turning to Tony.
“On it.” Tony says at the look in Cap's eyes. He turns to the many keyboards and screens in front of him and from his pocket brings his backup hard drive, a copy of the one he had used to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D.’s software when he had first gotten there. Except this one had a little extra umph in it. He had managed to upload a code onto the drive that would allow Jarvis to enter most any system he plugged the drive into, thus giving him access to the whole system. It was experimental, and the last time he had tried it fried the computer he was working with, but he had made changes since then and now was as good a time as ever to pull out the ace up his sleeve. He fumbled with the set up, trying to find a place to put it in, and finally he plugged the drive into the setup.
“Man of Iron! What takes you so long!” He heard Thor shout over the sounds of carnage coming from Loki. It gives him a bad feeling in his stomach, the sounds Loki’s making. He’s heard those noises one too many times for his liking, the sounds of someone dying slowly. Painfully. With that in mind his fingers fly across the keys a bit faster, and he calls back to Thor,
“I’m doing everything I can! Give me ten seconds!”
“We may not have that much time!”
“I’m workin on it!”
He sees Jarvis’ icon pop up and a counter in the corner of the screen starts to count backwards from ten.
As the countdown starts, Loki sees things happen in slow motion.
10… Thor finally chooses between harassing Tony and looking over his brother, and he rushes back to the glass keeping him from helping Loki
9… an alarm had started blaring somewhere not a couple seconds before when Jarvis infiltrated the system, and as Tony works S.H.I.E.L.D agents come storming into the room.
8… the SHIELD agents point their guns at Tony, but soon they notice Loki suffocating in his cell
7… one with a nice hat- at least Tony thinks so, comes forward and points a pistol right at Tony's Head
6… nice hat guy says, “What have you done to the prisoner!”
5… Ignoring him completely, Thor shouts to his brother over the noise, “TELL ME WHAT TO DO! HOW DO I SAVE YOU?!?!”
4… Loki manages to gargle out a couple words, “The….. s-scepter….”
3… Thor turns with violence in his eyes and points at the nearest agent. “Go to the lab provided to the Man of Iron and get the scepter!”
2… The man falters but doesn’t move. Somewhere in the distance a peal of thunder can be heard and the helicarrier shakes slightly. “NOW!” Thor shouts and the man runs off to fetch the scepter
1… Tony’s eyes watch intently as the counter drops to zero, and a loud hiss is heard as the door to the cell opens.
Tony turns on his heels to see Thor, Bruce, and Steve rush into Loki’s cell, and he's not far behind. Thor cradles Loki's head in his arms and tries to sit him up, Loki just coughs violently and little flecks of blood start to dot his lips. Bruce goes into doctor mode, checking Loki’s pulse and pulling out a scanner to compare the results of the tests he takes now to the ones he took before. Where his brain activity was up around 310% before, it was at a solid zero now.
Loki’s mind has literally drawn a blank, but as the agent Thor sent off sprints back into the room, Loki's eyes glow blue and his brain activity spikes. He gasps and rolls on his side, into a ball, clutching at the clothing over his chest, and the scanners indicate that his heart is beating about fifty times faster than it should be. Thor steadies him and tries as hard as he can to get Loki’s eyes to focus on him, but with the amount of rolling back in his head there doing he doubts he’ll be able to get him to focus. Tony can hear Thor whisper,
“No… not again… I cannot be useless a second time…” But Thor is getting nowhere, and Loki’s eyes threaten to close with every passing second. Thor slaps Loki’s face with his hand, but it makes no difference and his eyes slide closed, his body going limp in Thor’s arms.
So Thor does what he usually does when a problem arises, he yells at it. “No… NO! Loki! Brother, open your eyes! You shall not leave me again!” In his fit of emotions, sparks of lightning fly out of Thor’s fingers and into Loki’s chest where Thor’s hand lays. Loki jolts awake, coughing blood all down his front and still not in a good state. His breathing is heavy and he looks like he’ll faint again at any moment.
Loki can feel his mind getting farther and farther away, slipping from him for what could be the final time. Maybe this was for the best. If he went it would spare him further pain. He could finally rest. He had been so tired for so long that the eternal sleep doesn't seem so bad.
But through the dark peeks a smile, and just for a second he can hear laughter, tiny voices laughing along with his own. They ring in his ears and bounce around his body, a flash of a hug and the memory of little feet splashing in a stream bringing motion to his aching limbs. With the strength he musters he activates the shield, the one the x-rays detected around his body, for even if all else failed this would protect him for at least a little longer. He knows the risks, after this he won’t wake up until his seidr deems the threat gone. But a little chance is better than none, and with the last of his energy he waves his hand and a whispy green figure appears in the air between his face and Thor’s. It might take weeks, months, years, but he would find those footsteps eventually, even if they sounded a bit different. He would see those smiles again, no matter the cost. His eyes close and for the first time in a while, its a good thing.