Last chance

It has been some time since he successfully managed to escape Asgard clutches, Midgard it´s not that as bad as he had previously thought, especially in recent times. The avengers “Midgard´s mightiest heroes” have proved to be a worthy source of entertainment, messing up mission after mission, not owning up to their mistakes and most recently fighting each other.

“What morons they are” Loki muttered as he arrived at a hidden bunker in a frosty land, a quite powerful magical aura attracting him to that location.

Once he arrived to the bunker, he set out to explore it in the hopes of finding out the source of the magical power he was sensing. While Midgard’s mightiest heroes as well as Asgard and the rest of the nine realms were occupied with their own inane troubles, he was busy looking for ways of getting more powerful, be it by finding all of the infinity stones before the mad Titan or encountering possible strong allies, thought ironically the later has been harder than the former, what with his status being that of an enemy as well as a fugitive in almost all of the nine realms.

But he was a survivor, he didn’t know if him being alive was a curse or a blessing at this point in time, but since he still had his life, then he might as well fuck over the ones who fucked him up in the first time, he had many quarrels to set yet.

“It seems that this place was from the organization who took my scepter after the invasion” Loki observed as he passed several rooms in the facility, some looked like laboratories while others just looked to be storage rooms. Nothing really caught his attention, until he entered an open room with several tubes containing what he believed used to be humans “Looks like someone already took care of them” Loki noticed idly as he walked closer to one of the tubes, touching the hole made by some gun on the crystal of the container and then seeing as his fingers came out with blood.

It was of not importance to him if the beings inside the tubes were dead or alive, he was there for the magical signature. As he went deeper into the facility the sounds of someone grieving became audible enough for him to hear it, he personally didn’t care if someone was hurting, life was full of hurts and disappointments, and the faster you learned that the better for you.

He continued on his way, the crying suddenly stopping. “Thank the Norns” Loki mumbled, the sounds of crying irritating him to no end. That was until he noticed that the sounds came from the place that was emitting the magical signature he was looking for and that the crying had been exchanged in favor of starting an enchantment. Picking up his pace Loki soon found himself with an unexpected scene.

The first thing that caught his attention was the blood, there was a lot of it, even if a fight took place in there, the blood on the room still was a bit too much. The second thing that he noticed was a white, blue and red shield as well as a metal arm on the floor, both of the objects drenched in blood. And the third and last thing that he saw, was the broken suit of the Man of Iron and a girl at it’s side condensing what looked like a great amount of magical energy in her hands.

The metal suit had a lot of scratches and broken parts scattered everyway, but perhaps the most important detail was that it had a body inside, a body that belonged to one of Thor’s shield brothers and the only hero worthy of any attention, the Man of Iron himself, Tony Stark. It was also a body that seemed dead, even from the distance he was at, he could see the pale skin and the blue lips, indicating that if he were to touch the body all he would feel from it would be cold. Getting closer still, he could see that the chest area was caved in and seeing the form of the damage inflicted, it wasn’t too difficult to put the pieces together. Still, he was surprised, he didn’t think the little quarrel that the band of heroes had going on was serious enough that it ended up with someone’s death. And to think that it was the righteous captain who did the deed, what a bunch of hypocrites.

Directing his sight from the dead body to the girl at one side, he watched her for a moment before speaking “You know that he is dead, right?” He asked her with a dry voice, not receiving a reply from her, he continued “Even with all that magic that you are preparing, it would be useless” He knew that, he spoke from experience, he tried it when his mother died, but once the soul leaves the body there is nothing that can be done.

He continued to observe her, when once again she didn’t give a reply to what he said. She had brown hair and brown doe eyes, tear tracks ran down her delicate features, even with the glassy eyes and the red nose, the resemblance with the man inside the suit was remarkable and he knew even without asking that she was related to Stark, no doubts about it. He didn’t have any intention of consoling her, but he still stayed in the room. The feeling that her magic was emitting for some reason was soothing for him, it remained him of the feeling that he had every time he went to his mother’s garden, back on Asgard. It attracted him like nothing had in the last few centuries. He was curious about what kind of person possessed that magic, soothing yet strong and unyielding at the same time.

Having enough of being bored, he reached out with his arm to get her to stop channeling her magic, as he had said before, it was all useless after all “You really won’t achieve anyth…” He stopped talking when he touched her arm. He couldn’t hear nor see anything, it was all white noise to him and a light made him loose his sight for a few seconds, he also couldn’t feel the cold of the place anymore nor smell the blood on the floor, all of his senses were rendered useless. And suddenly, he could feel everything, the cold that was seeping through his pants from where he ended up kneeling on the floor, the smell of blood coming from the inside of the metal suit as well as a faint scent of burned flesh, the sound of crackling magic surrounding him and the girl, and finally he could see the new mark resting on the inside of his forearm, it was a shimmering white, just like the magic from the girl, it had the form of a bird it´s tail feathers curling around what it looked like a pole with an L engraved on the tip.

He had always felt like he didn’t belong anywhere, even when he still was ignorant of his origins, he had still felt like an outsider back on Asgard, the feeling abated a little whenever he visited Alfheim, so he had thought that it had something to do with all the magic that flowed freely everyway on the realm. So, he had made his peace with it, thinking that a being like him would always feel somewhat unbalanced in a place not full of magic, and after a few centuries of training his control he had thought that all he needed was to find his anchor. But now, he knew he had been a total and completely fool. The discomfort he had thought had faded with his impeccable control was nothing more than him getting used to the feeling, and now that he had somehow bonded with someone, he finally found peace, his magic always on guard suddenly was all settled and calm.

“Loki, you know that you are blessed? Great mages like you are said to have another half that compliments them, when you find your other half do not let go of them and do everything in your power to protect them, or you will forever regret it” Frigga´s words suddenly came to his mind. He had thought that his mother was trying to comfort him as she had always done during his childhood, later on he had found out that his mother had had a bonded that died on the war. But after some centuries he had given up on his mother´s words. No one managed to follow him and match him, be it on magic or on his ideals, no one wanted to understand him and he didn’t want to be understood by moronic bastards that where only interested in war.

He didn’t have anything but his magic in this universe, everything precious to him taken from him, his home, his mother, his title … he really didn’t have anything but his life. How ironic and ridiculous that once that he had been deprived of everything important to him, the universe would grace him with the most precious thing a mage can wish for. A bonded, he, Loki, had a bonded, a mortal bonded but a bonded nonetheless.

He lifted his sight from the mark on his forearm and looked at the girl, her mark was smaller than his, while his spanned from his wrist to the inside of his elbow, hers was only on the inside of her wrist. It was a crystal that had an L engraved on the base and it was surrounded by a snake, it was glowing a shimmering green, just like the color of his magic. He was mesmerized by seeing his mark on someone else’s skin, that he just stared for a few seconds without doing anything.

A sudden feeling of foreboding made him look up to her face, she was still a mess but she seemed fine, frowning a little he was about to lift his hand to touch her forehead when she suddenly threw up blood. It startled him into action, his magic manifesting itself and covering her to check her up on it´s own volition, barely a second after he scowled at her.

“What have you done, you foolish mortal?” Loki growled when his magic noticed the appearing of grave and critical injuries on her body “I told you, no amount of magic was going to help him” He started to pour his magic onto her body to try to heal her. The foolish little mortal had transferred the injuries that Stark´s body had suffered to her own “Even if you heal the body it’s of no use if you don’t have the soul” At that she finally looked up from the motionless body to him.

“I don’t care” she finally said “He is my father … and if I can’t save him, at the very least I want his body to be fine … he deserves that” She trailed off, tears starting to fall again from her cheeks and more blood flowing out of new injuries started staining her clothes.

“Stop the damned spell already! He isn´t coming back!” Loki yelled at her, a nervous feeling starting to appear on his hearth, the amount of blood that was flowing out of the mortal´s body was starting to be alarming “You are going to die you damned mortal!” Loki had had enough, he ripped her hands from where she had at top of Stark’s chest, that caused her to glare at him.

“I don´t care if I die! He took everything from me and know I have nothing, nothing!” With those angry and bitter words, her magic started working even harder than before, the sudden burst of her magic sent Loki flying to the other side of her room. An oppressive feeling didn´t let him stand up, his magic didn´t respond to him either, it didn’t want to hurt her even if that meant helping her. Loki could only watch as her magic flowed out of her body, what was only a small orb before, became a white shimmering cloud that surrounded her “Stop” Loki muttered, a suffocating feeling starting to grow on his chest “S-stop!” Loki choked out. His eyes started shinning with tears without his permission, the heavy feeling on his chest growing without stopping “I can´t lose anything else, please” Loki whispered, he couldn’t do anything while he watched that shimmering cloud grow and grow, not caring about its caster’s state.

Without a warning the big cloud of magical energy suddenly shootout to the sky, leaving a cold and still body behind. Loki scrambled to catch it before it could touch the floor, the pool of blood underneath him staining his clothes, but he didn’t care, he could only hold the body in his arms with the hope that it would keep warm. It was a futile attempt, within seconds the body was completely cold, devoid of life.

He didn’t know how much time he stayed in the hidden underneath fortress, but he eventually came out. As he was walking aimlessly on the streets, he caught sight of some news channel that was being transmitted on the television of a small business, they had found out the bunker and the bodies inside it “The lose of the hero who listened to us! Iron Man also know as Tony Stark found dead on a Siberian bunker” “Lydia Stark, daughter of Tony Stark found dead along her father´s body” Those sentences continued to appear at the bottom of the screen while the reporter commented on the news. Loki continued to watch with numb eyes as the new channel showed photos of both father and daughter, so that was his bonded name, Lydia, it suited her. The photo that was showed was one of her and Stark smiling, both of them using sunglasses. She was beautiful, he could tell even if he couldn’t see her eyes, a lump started to form on his throat so he turned his gaze to the other side.

On another local the news that were showing were quite different “Rouge Avengers attacked and found dead” The channel was showing a clip of what Loki assumed was a secret base where the others were hiding, thought he could only guess because the room was a total and complete mess, there were scorching marks on the wall, the body of the captain and the witch were burned to ashes, the little spider had cuts along all of her body and the archer and the captain´s sidekick were cut up to pieces. “So that was where the magic went to” Loki commented to himself, he couldn’t help but form a faint smile, his bonded was as resentful and petty as him.

Now that he had confirmed that the ones who hurt his bonded had paid, he turned around to keep walking without a destination in mind. He should be grateful that he only had her for a few moments, he thought, it should hurt less than if he had had her for a long time. “I didn’t peg you as someone so pathetic Liesmith” He heard someone said those words behind him. He didn’t care about anything anymore, it was true though, he was so pathetic, he couldn’t resist the mad Titan´s torture, he couldn’t keep his kingship for more than a few days and he couldn’t save his bonded.

“What would you do for a last chance?” The woman that had spoken before, asked “What would you be willing to do for another chance?” At that Loki turned around, the sight that greeted him was that of the Lady Death, Queen of Helheim, Hela, she was standing still waiting for his answer “What would you have me do?” He asked her instead, at that she smiled like she had just won something “Do not worry, you will even like what you have to do” She said while still smiling “You only have to stop Thanos plan´s of killing half the beings of the universe” She continued “I would prefer it if you also manage to kill him” At those words her smile turned cruel “But I will settle for you to stop him from ruining my business. If you accept, you will be given another opportunity to fuck up everyone who messed with you on this life and you will have the chance to protect everything that you once held dear” Hela finished her speech with an outstretched hand.

Looking at that hand “I will kill Thanos without a doubt and I will definitely protect that which I couldn’t” Loki vowed while reaching to shake Hela’s hand, the moment his hand touched her a cold feeling filled his entire being, and he wasn’t on a random street of a random city on a backwater realm, instead he was on the piece of land called Germany about to fight the Captain and Man of Iron.