Little angel

(23) saying goodbye again

Loki's POV:

Once again Ivory is gone but this time our search is more frantic than before knowing she's sick. It took a week to understand that she was still somewhere in New York and another to find that she was in the Adirondack Forest Preserve. The third week was spending each day looking through all 24,281 Kilometres squared of the preserve. On the fourth day we happened upon two bears in a cave and a few other animals but other than that there wasn't anything found. It was on the fifth day when Nat saw Echo flying north of the preserve, so I followed him, whilst they continued in that area just in case. It was too late until I found myself in wolf territory. Echo landed on a branch on a hollowed out tree before hopping in to eat whatever he had in his talons. After a couple minutes there was no movement until a wolf comes out of the cave and yips up at the tree. Echo swoops out and glides into the cave which was an unusual sight. Everything fell into place when I heard coughing. Ivory was in there. I met up with some of the team and told them what I saw. "I heard her coughing in the wolf den!" I pant, they all look at me funny. "Right she can talk with animals, forgot bout that" Tony snapped his fingers, Bucky slapped the back of his head "Thank you Bucky. Any ways, she isn't well I heard her coughing and it did not sound good." Peter raises his hand, "So umm how are we going to get her if she's surrounded by wolves?" Nat picked up a stick and drew a small plan out, "Tony and Steve and I will draw them out whilst, Loki, Peter and Bucky go in to get her. I saw you three go in as she trusted you guys the most and I don't know if there will be any wolves smart enough to stay behind with her." We all agree with her plan and I bring them to the den. The three of them make lots of sound, No movement. Nat obviously had zero patients so she shot a blank, that got a reaction three wolves went running out of the den. The three of us took this chance to sneak into the den.

Almost instantly we are met with growling by, one old wolf, multiple pups and one young wolf. All of which are in front of a very pale and weak looking Ivory. The young wolf wasn't having it so he charged at us, Bucky took over fighting him whilst Peter somehow ended up playing with the pups, the only one left was the old one who looked like she didn't have much fight left in her anyways. "Calm down Cleo, I know them. Although I told them not to look for me." A gentle hoarse voice calms down the angry elder wolf. The wolf stops growling and yips, the young wolf fighting Bucky stops and walks back over to Ivory. They both nuzzle her and sit behind her still being cautious of us. I scratch the back of my neck, "Look I know you told us to wait and not look for you but not long after you left we found out from recent medical exams that you were extremely unwell. Bruce and Strange don't even know how your still alive." Her eyes widen at my response, "How ill?" Bucky places his arm on my shoulder and nods encouraging me to tell her outright. "I-It's cancer. But because of your genetic make up and healing abilities, it just continued to mutate, this is the worst medical case every recorded." She begins coughing and wheezing until blood come out, we all rush over to her, even the two wolves use their noses to nudge her a little. They whimper and she sighs "I'm okay Bandit, why don't you go get Bella and the others okay?.....Don't worry I still have Cleo and the pups with me." The young wolf trudges out of the den, "Looks like I don't have long Cleo" She chuckles, in return the wolf growls and rests her head on Ivory's chest, "Yes, yes I shouldn't joke about that. Your right Cleo, I'm sorry" The elder wolf huffs and nods her head.

Bucky coughs to get her attention, "Ahem" Ivory makes a shocked face as if she had forgotten about us standing there, "Yes continue?" She gestures. "We do not know if we can cure you but we can make things easier and less painful. Just please come home!" Peter crawls away from the pups, begging for her to return with us. She opens her mouth then pauses. As if on cue four wolves come running into the den, obviously agitated and growling. "Calm down all of you..." Ivory wheezes, the wolves stop and the two younger ones stand either side of me and Bucky. Whilst two bigger wolves walk straight passed us and nuzzle Ivory, "I'm fine Bella, Cleo and Bandit kept me safe. Axel relax, they aren't here to harm anyone" With that the two wolves calm down. "This is Bella and Axel, the alpha pair. Beside you, you have, bandit and Cookie, you've met Cleo and then there's the pups. The pack have been caring for me for the past two weeks since I fell ill." The wolves stuck their noses up proudly, the one I'm assuming is Bandit, wags his tail happily. She talks to the alphas and explain what's going on. The wolves look at us then back at Ivory, then sit on the ground letting out a huff. "They're telling me it's probably best to go with my own kind. But that doesn't mean they trust you as you used tricks to get into their den whilst hey were gone." "Never thought I'd see the day where you scold me Ivy" I chuckle, "Me either" She smiles. The wolves nod and Ivory slowly sits up, Bella and Axel stand up beside her looking like they will catch her if she falls. Again slowly, she stands up wobbling her way over to us, the wolves had her use them as support as she hobbled a few steps over. Up close you can really tell she isn't well, her hair is incredibly thin and even her feathers are missing, she has dark circles under her eyes and just looked pale.

I sigh and pick her up bridal style, "Why did you leave?" She fiddled with her fingers, "I guess part of me didn't want to you guys to see me weak, something just screamed at me to go." Bucky gently pats her head, "I can't say I fully understand your actions little bird but you have got to stop scaring us." He smiles wearily. She nods and holds out her arm towards Peter who is on the brink of crying, "I'm sorry Peter. I didn't mean to scare or worry any of you guys. I kinda thought If I left a note you'd forget about me just like my parents did..." Her voice quietens at the last part. I kiss her forehead, "We would never leave or forget you like those things did." Bucky and Peter nod, agreeing with me. "Come on everyone is waiting for you outside, well except for Thor and Bruce." She nods and curls up a little in my arms.

The wolves follow us out and I kneel down to their level for Ivory to say goodbye to them, they all nuzzled and the wolves whimpered at her leaving. I stood up and nodded at the wolves before we walk off back to the jet to meet up with the others. Once we got to the jet, Nat and Steve looked hurt by her appearance, even Tony's expression changed to something else other than his usual glare. On the flight back to the tower we all caught up with her and what went on in the forest. At some point she fell asleep. Steve asked to carry her in to the compound, so I reluctantly passed her to him. She shifted in his arms but once comfortable she made no further movement.