I Wish the Tone of This Chapter Worked For An Innuendo Title
Loki’s eyes surveyed his daughter’s face carefully. Admittedly, he hadn’t been paying enough attention to her over the last three days. He’d been a bit more concerned with his own torture, aware that they had not touched her while she was unconscious. It seemed as though this man was really only interested in him, and that he’d kidnapped Sage simply to get to him. Although, after overhearing some conversations that the thugs had shared, they really had been given instructions to kill Sage at some trigger word.
The thought made Loki’s blood boil. He could understand a vendetta; he had a few himself. But kidnapping an innocent girl, with all intentions of killing her on threat of compliance was foolhardy, rash, and cruel. Sage didn’t deserve this. Loki did, and he was aware of that. There were many things that he had not yet paid his penance for, but Sage had been drawn into this simply for being his daughter, and that was inexcusable.
Sage wasn’t too badly hurt. She wasn’t alright, but nothing had yet happened that wouldn’t be healed within at least a month. Her lip was split, and there was a trickle of dried blood on her forehead from when she’d been knocked unconscious with that damn pipe wrench. It didn’t look a serious injury, but they’d have to be cautious and watch for the onset of infection. Her knees were scraped up, presumably from when she’d been kidnapped, and her elbow was bruised, perhaps from attempting to fight off her assailents. Maybe that had been there before this whole ordeal had happened, he wasn’t quite sure of much anymore.
While he didn’t need to stay hydrated quite like humans, three days without any form of water or food was a lot for anyone. His magic sustained him somewhat, but that would only last for so long, and he couldn’t afford to expend any past keeping himself mostly alive and keeping Sage from seeing how injured he was. He refused to add more trauma to his daughter’s mind, despite feeling slightly dizzy and the headache pounding at his temples.
Loki flinched as what felt like a drop of water fell onto his forehead, a scalding sensation blossoming there and traveling throughout his body, gaining speed and intensity the farther from his head it traveled, until it flared up and fizzled out upon reaching the cuffs. He winced and rolled his wrists, trying to ease the burning feeling there, cringing away at the feeling of a second drop, and then a third, each stronger than the last.
“Papa?” Sage asked quietly, watching her father with concern as a glamour he was wearing blinked away for a moment and she caught sight of a black eye before it was secured back in place. “Papa, what’s going on?” She jumped at the sound of a door being slammed open in the distance. “Papa?”
“Magic.” Loki responded through gritted teeth. “Some low-rent cretin of a sorceror is… trying to drain my magic.”
“Wh- Papa? A- are you goign to be okay? What’s going on? What is that noise?!” She cried as another slammed door was heard, and the sound of shouting reached them.
“Sage, darling, I need you to calm down for a moment. Just a moment, love, and then- then we’ll figure things out.” Loki took a deep breath and stopped fighting the acid burning away at his magic. He stopped fighting it and pushed, shoving his glamour into Sage’s mind an dsecuring it there before letting the true one drop. He looked carefully into her fear-filled eyes, watching for any flinch or look of concern or horro as a sign that she saw any of the myriad injuries littering his body. He sighed in relief when her expression did not change, and also dropped his Asgardian glamour, letting his Jötunn magic freeze over his wounds and dull all of his pain as he mustered all his remaining magic and cast a crying spell to find the source of the commotion in the hall. He nearly cried tears of joy at the sight of James, Deadpool, Barton, Thor, and the Captain slowly but surely pplowing their way through a myriad of guards to get to them. He could not even muster the energy to be ashamed at the necessity of such a rescue. He just need to be home.
He ended the spell and slid back into his glamour, breathing heavily. “Sage?”
“Yeah?”
“We’re going home, darling. We’re going to be okay.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“They- they’re all- AHH!” Loki cried out as his magic flickered, and every muscle in his body contracted.
“Papa?!”
“I- I’m f-fine, Sage, I-” He let out a choked groan as his muscles relaxed and then seized again, squeezing his eyes shut. The cuffs disintegrated and fell off, and everythng invading his body and magic suddenly disappeared. He took a deep breath and stared at the door, panting.
A fiery ring appeared in the air in front of the door and widened until it was large enough for a man to pass through. A man in a red cloak stepped out of the circle. He had… interesting facial hair that was vaguely reminiscent of Tony’s. His hair was greying tastefully at the temples, and he wore yellow gloves.
Loki’s eyes narrowed, and his face grew stormy.”Strange,” he hissed, “Of course.”
“Well that’s a fine way to greet your rescuer, Laufeyson. Or is it Odinson? Or Stark? I can never remember.”
“Fuck off.”
Strange tutted. “That’s rude.”
“Papa? Who is this?”
Strange turned to Sage and his face softened. “Doctor Stephen Strange. I used to be a colleague of your father’s. I am a master of the mystic arts.” He explained as he gently began to free her.
“Low-rent party magician, more like.” Loki groaned, trying to muster the energy to stand.
Strange shook his head so that only Sage could see. “Well this ‘low-rent party magician’ just freed you from those magic-dampening cuffs, so you’re welcome.”
“I’mwelcome?! Do you have any idea what your sorry excuse for magic feels like?!” Loki spat, as if the words were poison on his lips. A sensation he’d become all too familiar with in the past few days. “It was searing me fit to be eaten from the inside out. It was like acid, eating and tearing away at my magic until there was nothing left. It felt as though someone had poured boiling water upon my head and down my throat and left me to burn and die. How would you like to endure that, Strange, simply to have some vague semblance of your magic restored that you do not have the strength or endurance to use because you are so injured and of poor health that you cannot even stand?!”
The sorceror, to his credit, looked as though he felt badly. “I am sorry about that. It was the only thing I could think of to get you out of those things. Bombarding them with my magic while simulaneously wearing away yours enough for you to slip out of them altogether. I did not think of the toll that it would truly wear on you. My apologies.”
Loki scoffed and clenched his fists. “Save your apologies for when I am strong enough to challenge you to a duel.”
This time Strange merely rolled his eyes. “I’ll be sure to tell your husband that when I return you to him. Come now, up.” He helped Sage to her feet and turned to help Loki, but was faced with a knife.
“If think to so much lay a hand on me, I will gut you where you stand, rescuer or no.”
Sage sighed, still looking a bit afraid, and anxious to get home. “Papa… please.”
At that moment, Mjolnir burst through the door, followed quickly by Thor. “Brother!” The blonde god stormed in and instantly went to Loki to check him over.
Sage smiled a tiny bit, so so happy to finally see another of her family, because that meant that she really was going home. “Thor?” She asked quietly, registering with a bit of surprise how weak her own voice sounded.
“Yes, Sage?” He turned to her, but she held up a shaky hand before he could start fussing over her too.
“Would you mind… helping Papa up? He’s not doing so hot, and he won’t let Doctor Strange help him, and I just… I want to go home.” Her voice broke on the last word, and she took a deep breath, trying desperately to keep from crying. She was doing so well. She just needed to get home. She needed to get home and see her dad and to call Addy and Sam, and give Peter a hug, and just-
Sage felt herself enveloped in a hug, and without thinking, she latched on tightly to whoever it was, knowing that she was safe. She’d be alright. She sniffed a couple times, blinking away tears. She only realised that Bucky was the one hugging her when she felt his metal arm, and she looked up to see Steve, Clint, and Deadpool in the room as well. Loki was upright but leaning heavily on Thor.
Steve gave her a soft smile and turned to Strange. “Can you get us straight to the quinjet?”
Silently, Strange opened another of the fiery rings that he’d entered through, and they all filed through it to the quinjet. Clint quickly took up position in the pilot’s seat, and Bucky and Thor gently guided Sage and Loki to adjacent seats, sitting on either side and bracketing them in once the two were settled. Sage laid her head on Loki’s shoulder and closed her eyes, knowing that when she opened them again they’d be back at the Avengers Tower, and everything would be okay.