Here's another chapter... sorry for making everyone wait... :) :) 

Hope you like it! Edit is courtesy of my dear friend, lokidottir once again! :-) 

Chapter Forty-Three

~Nobody's POV~

"What did you do?" wails Thea, because she can't get anything else out as she crawls towards Loki, because it hurts her too much to bend over. "Why-how could you-I hate you-u—u-u-u."

His breathing is erratic; he's nearing his last. "Thea," he gasps, "Look...at me."

She's sobbing so hard, she can barely see, but she turns to him so that the two pairs of green eyes look at each other. She spots the knife in Loki's side, and watches as he pulls it out. The blood makes her feel dizzy, and she sways.

But it's a knife. It's a way.

She makes to grab it, but Loki stops her. And then, before she can move, the knife has disintegrated into a greenish mist. It's gone. 

"You...must...go on," whispers Loki. He grabs her arm; his fingers are trembling, "Go. You...will succeed."

"I can't!" she cries. "I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't!"

"Yes you...can..."

"No-no-no," Thea can no longer get anything out. She's watching someone else die now, someone that she hated but secretly down in her heart, she knows that through his cruelty and harshness, Loki was someone that could, in his own twisted ways, be relied upon.

"Don't...make me say... it again.... kitten...," he smiles at her slightly. He's trying to smile.

"Don't!" she chokes, "Please don't leave me by myself, Loki." Her words are childish, but then again, that's what she is. A child. Only a child...

But then Loki takes another, shuttering gasp, and then ceases to breath. His hand falls from hers, curling up onto the scorching floor.

"NO!" she exclaims, crying her heart out. "NonononononoNO!" 

But she knows that he's gone. And she lies her head down on his chest and begins to sob, her shoulders heaving as a little girl cries for her protector. 

*

"Loki's dead." 

The rest of the Avengers, with the addition of Kyle and Peter, stare at Natasha. She's at a computer screen, having hacked into the Imeldi's video feeds an hour or so ago. She can see into the cell. 

She spins around on the swivel chair, met with silence. Thor's head is down, silently grieving for his brother. 

"We have, like a week or so," says Tony. "A week. Here we are, cowering outside of an Imeldi camp, maybe only a few miles from the Mantra, and we're not doing a damn thing about it."

"If we try to get in there again, they might kill Thea," says Steve. "Loki's already dead. We can't trust them to not kill their prisoners even if they're returning them to us."

"So what do you suggest we do?" demands Tony. "Sit here? Wait to see how long they're going to drag Thea's life along until she dies? Wait until the Mantra is out of our reach. C'mon, guys, we're better than this."

He points to the computer screen. "Now there's a little girl inside that damn jail cell that needs our help. And beyond that, there's an entire earth out there that, quite frankly, is under the overwhelmingly clever and annoyingly deceptive attack of the Imeldi. Who's with me?"

Nobody protests, although Peter and Steve look like they'd like to.

"Where's Max?" asks Clint.

Without looking at Clint, Steve says, "With the boy. Now we need to plan this carefully. If we screw this up, Thea's a goner."

"It's on you, captain," says Tony, inclining his head towards Steve Rogers.

*

~Thea's POV~

I scream and try to resist them as they drag me away from Loki and shove me back into my cell. But then, it's over. I just let the guard fasten me back up to the wall of the cell; my body is limp, and I'm done. I'm giving up. The only single bit of bliss is that they've forgotten to chain me in that uncomfortable half-sitting position.

Not that standing up, chained, in a sauna-like room isn't horrendous.

They do not torture me until an hour later, after they've taken away Loki's body and after I've whimpered, lonely and afraid for someone to come get me. Otherwise, I'm going to die. I know I will. 

That knife had been the easiest way out. But Loki had known better than to leave it with me. He had used the last bit of his strength and magic to conjure it away from me. I hate him for it, for thinking that far out. For knowing that once he was dead, once I was alone, I would want to die too. 

Kafrandi switches tactics, trying to make me tell anything about anything. I don't give in. The most information he gets is that I am slowly fading. 

At one point, the pain is so severe, I lose consciousness in the middle of a sharp scream. If they hadn't forgotten to chain me around the neck, I would have choked and died.

Too bad they had forgotten. 

Loki probably would've killed me for thinking that. 

I'm woken by a splash of water that drenches my already-full-of-sweat face. I gasp and sputter as an Imeldi growls, "Awaken, filthy human."

The vervain that was in the water sinks into my skin and I wail, the blisters already forming on my arms and around my mouth. I try to spit the terrible stuff out, but I am so dehydrated, I can hardly produce any saliva. 

They leave me just as the sun sets on the tenth day before the blue moon. I sink back into unconsciousness, tear stains practically tattooed on my cheeks as well as the scars from the stinging vervain.

*

"Hand me that screwdriver, won't you kid?" 

I roll my eyes at Bryce, but toss my brother the screwdriver anyway. "What the hell are you doing, anyway? You've been down here for days."

"This old place?" Bryce gestures towards the garage that connects to the other tenants'. "I told you, I want to get this done for Mom before her birthday."

I sit down on the wooden table next to his work space. It's dusty and crowded with various tools, but I push some aside. "See, this is why you're so frustrating." 

"Hm?" asks Bryce, reaching up on a top shelf to grab some nails. They swivel around on his table, where I can see the beginnings of  a birdhouse. Mom loves birds. 

"You're nice to other people. Like, you do things like this," I gesture towards the birdhouse. "And here I am just known as the nerdy hipster who has social issues."

"First of all," says Bryce, "There's nothing wrong with being a nerd or a hipster. And besides, Thea, you're also a beast as a martial artist. It's pretty embarrassing that my little sister could probably kick my ass in a fight. Not," he points his finger at me, "That I believe anything I just said."

I snort. "If you say so."

"And as for your social issues-"

"Hey!"

He talks on over me, "You just don't choose to associate with the idiots that tend to populate New York City."

"Did you just insult the entire population of New York?"

"I might have, in a matter of speaking." 

*

~Nobody's POV~

Not even the vervain can rouse her now. Thea is so beyond consciousness that the Imeldi snarl as they try to rouse her, to interrogate her. 

"Kill her..." hisses Kafrandi. "Sssshe is no longer of any ussssse to me."

*

Tony circles around the base of the camp, near the surface. He flies low, near the ground. At the far left of the camp, he uses some of his miniature torpedoes to burst through the surface. 

This is a signal, and the explosion not only rouses Steve and Kyle to break in from the foliage, but it also sounds an alarm.

"Go, go, go!" yells Steve, waiting to allow Kyle, Natasha, and Clint to run past him. He knows that it is now or never.

*

Inches from striking Thea a sounding, final blow, Kafrandi hesitates as he senses the crumbling of the structures around him. "Go..." he hisses to his companions, "Now..."

*

Thor and Bruce take the right side. Although Bruce has insisted that he will not convert into the Hulk, the flames sprouting from the other side of the base and the screams of the Imeldi and the guards are stirring his blood. Soon, he won't be able to resist. 

Just like Thea.

*

She stares at the frame, sobbing and throwing pillows at the wall, at the picture frame of her and Bryce together at the state fair last year. Sirens are flaring, the noise flowing in from the windows, a direct result of the catastrophe that had just taken over the majority of New York. 

She hears her parents downstairs. Her mother is crying too, and her father's voice is choked as he frantically speaks into the phone.

Screaming in anguish, she falls onto her bed. 

She won't let Leah in when the little girl cries to come inside her big sister's room.

*

Tony speeds down the tight corridor, flying low, knocking out every guard and Imeldi in his path. His destination lies below the ground, where Natasha's security camera is still blinking in Jarvis' GPS.

*

Clint and Natasha separate from the fray, moving downwards. Natasha uses Clint as a launch, then springs backwards, her well-placed heel landing smack in the face of a particularly large Imeldi. 

Clint's arrows are going fast, but he never fails as he strings them tightly, letting them fly straight into the hearts of the monsters. Without moving, he elbows a human guard- the man topples to the ground, blacked out. 

"Back me up!" yells Natasha, leaping over the fallen body of the guard. While Clint clears her path, she sprints down the steep embankment, using Tony's hurried directions that are vibrating in her ear. 

*

Thea blinks very very slowly, as if in slow motion. She sees the hissing serpentine figure of Kafrandi above her. As she draws in a breath, she coughs hoarsely, which causes her lips to crack and bleed again.

"Lisssten, human..." hisses Kafrandi. "Thissss isssss your lasssst. Your effortssss have failed. Now fear the darknessss..."

Thea's green eyes stare at the snake, meeting its blackened red pupils with fear, although she tries to hold that fear back. But at the brink of the abyss, she relaxes, welcoming death with open arms. 

Kafrandi rises up, his tail rattling horrifically- he is now taller than the girl. His forked tongue flares as he prepares to end Thea, chained and helpless. 

BANG.

With a screech, Kafrandi shutters and then falls to the ground, a missile in his hood and a knife in his tail.

*

~Thea's POV~

I vaguely hear a distant booming sound, but my eyes are beginning to roll into the back of my head and I know that I'm about to go. And I'm about to go forever. 

I'm choking on air. I can't breathe. 

"Oh my god," I hear a voice close to me. At least I think I do. But I'm delirious, and I know that hallucinations are a part of death. 

"lp...me...Clint..." the voice is closer to me, but fuzzy. What's going on?

I want to scream my helplessness and fear, but I can't move. I can't breathe. Can't breathe, can't move.

I feel arms under my back and under my legs and that's when I whimper, because the pain is so great, if feels like he is dragging me across sharpened silver knives instead of lifting me up. 

I hear my name. I think I do. Their shadows fade into silhouettes and then they are gone as I crash back into darkness.

*

Soft. I feel something soft below me. I want to scream when someone sticks a tube into my arm. Not another IV. Not another one. Please no more. Please. 

Please

*

I'm wearing black. The dress skims my knees. It's too small for me, but I don't wear black much. Now I am. 

The preacher drones on and on. I don't care. I don't give a damn thing about what he has to say about him. 

I just want him back.

I refuse when my father tries to put his arm around me. I refused the apologies and sympathizers from the mourners. Did they know him, like I knew him?

That's when it happened.

That's when I began to shut people out.

*

I have a vision of Kyle standing next to my bed (how can I be in a bed?), his low voice rumbling distantly. And then in a flurry of blankness, there's Jack too. He's wearing a beautiful golden halo and dressed in all white. I haven't believed in angels until now.

"J...jack..." I whisper, but my vision is carried away. 

*

"Thea, let me in."

"No."

"Thea, please, honey."

My mom does not beg often.

"No. I don't want anyone!" I scream at the door. 

*

My vision is still fuzzy. I know I'm hallucinating again. This point is made even more clear as I see Loki standing next to me. I'm in a different bed. He is watching me carefully, concernedly. He is talking to someone far away, because that's how far his voice is. 

He fades into the wall as I fall back into a more bleak drowse.

*

"Bryce..." I sob. "Bryce... don't leave me..."

*

I think I see my mom and dad. I'm dreaming. I'm crazy. I'm...

...asleep.

*

"Give him back to me!"

*

My eyes open with a start. The first person I see is Kyle. He's sitting next to my bed, this bed, which is real and solid and sturdy. No more visions. 

"Kyl..." I stutter.

He's beside me in an instant. "Thea, oh god, Thea, you're awake."

There's an oxygen mask on me. I guess that's why it's easier to breathe. 

But then I begin to panic, "Where am I?" I whisper, trying to sit up, but Kyle coaxes me down. "I'm dead, I have to be!" 

"You're not dead, Thea," he smiles, taking my hand. "Sleep."

I don't know if I fall asleep on my own, but Kyle has pricked me in the arm with something that looks suspiciously like a needle. 

And then it's black again.

*

~Nobody's POV~

"I fear for her." says Thor, looking at Thea from the edge of the room. "I've never seen someone so weak, so helpless."

It's true. Thea is bruised and burned, torn and bloodied. Her chest rises and falls limply, like a rag doll. 

"I do not fear." says Thor's companion looking at Thea with a gaze of protective gentleness. "The child is stronger than I have ever thought possible. She will survive."

soooo... what do you think???

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~Sierra