ROARA
The feeling of air being sucked out of my lungs was excruciating. I felt like a tube was being wrapped around my body and squeezing tightly. I couldn't see, there was no solid ground under me, and my brain was unable to land on any coherent thought.
I gripped harder to Loki, holding his body tightly to my own as we were pushed and pulled, this way and that, the universe sucking us in one end, ready to spit us out the other. I wanted to scream but there was no oxygen to scream with.
I'd never teleported unassisted before, and never used someone's powers when they weren't conscious. I had no idea what I was doing or where we would end up. The feeling of being squeezed pressed tighter to my throat, my lungs, my diaphragm, I felt sick, my body was both on fire and ice cold.
Loki was suddenly wrenched from my hands, his form disappearing from me into the abyss. I tried to reach out for him, but my hands were pinned to my body as I spun. I didn't know which way up I was, all sense of direction and time was lost when I tried to leave that falling building.
And then I was being thrown down, my back landing on hard ground. I rolled over and began to cough so hard I thought I would hack out a lung. I gasped in a deep breath of air and began to cough again. When my coughing fit was over I spat out some blood and got shakily to my feet.
"Loki?" I croaked. He'd never have been able to answer me anyway, he'd been out cold when I'd teleported. I looked around, my legs wobbling as I moved. My left leg felt unusually numb.
I held out a weak hand and a ball of fire appeared. I held it out in front of me as a light source. I was in some sort of cavern, the smell was musky and old, like the air was stale. I coughed again and wiped my nose with the back of my hand.
With one hand on the cave wall for support I made my way around the edge of the room like structure, stopping every so often when I thought my legs might collapse or when I needed to cough again.
At the edge of the cavern was a small opening. I had to get onto my belly and shimmy my way through, my arms scraping on the rough stone as I went, my face pressed into the dusty ground. At least it was dry, which meant there must be some sort of air source, even if it was small. I hated damp places - I'd hidden in enough sewer systems to know.
I emerged out the other side, into a tunnel like cave. God I was not going to be a fan of darkness after this was I? I shuddered at the thought of might be lurking where my firelight couldn't uncover. I tried to make my flame in my hand bigger, but it just sputtered at me.
"Great." I muttered. "First a building collapses on me, I teleport into a fucking cave, and now you're not going to work." I raised my eyebrows at the small flame in my hand. It threw a flame towards me, like a long yellow tongue. "Very mature." I said in response, before pulling myself upwards, using the stone for support again.
I held my flame out and moved it this way and that, making sure I covered every inch of the floor. Loki might be on another planet, or he might be five meters away from me, I didn't know. All I knew was that I had to find him before he bled out.
I picked up my pace, limping slightly as I went. My left leg must have landed weirdly when I'd been thrown onto the cavern floor, because I now had shooting pains up it every time I put too much pressure on it. I'm going to say it. This was not an ideal situation to be in.
After about fifteen minutes of making my way down the tunnel, I sank down the wall, leaning against it and breathing hard. Teleporting had taken it out of me, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to get up again. I'd also just exhausted my powers, using them in an extreme way not only to defeat the man with the rounded spear, but also to try and revive Fiona. When I'd managed to save Loki before I'd been exhausted as soon as the surge of power left me, sleeping nearly the whole way back. I didn't have time to sleep now.
I groaned. I couldn't stay here. I pulled myself up muttering swear words as I did so, my leg now worse than before, even less pressure triggering the pains. There was now a horrible dull aching beginning at my ankle.
I hoped Peter and Aditi had got out alright. Last time I'd seen them, there were stood by the edge of the window, about to jump, but then the building had begun to collapse and they'd disappeared from view. I tried not to think about Fiona, lying on the floor, her blonde hair spread out around her head like a halo.
I cried as I limped onwards, partly out of pain, but also fear and grief. Fiona was gone, and it was hitting me hard. I was in some random cave, wounded, trying to find my stupid ex, ex... ex-friend? Ex-boyfriend? I had no idea. I was about to give up, just lie down and not get up, when something made my breath catch.
Light.
At the end of the tunnel, a long way away, a tiny speck of light. I limped faster, making sure to keep checking the floor for Loki, but glancing up at the glimmer of hope in front of me, getting bigger with every step.
I stumbled, falling down, my face scraping the floor hard. I tried to get up, but my leg wasn't cooperating.
"Fuck." I groaned, looking at it. Nothing looked wrong, but I was no doctor. I lay on the ground, my head looking up, trying not to cry again. I closed my eyes, ready for the second time to give in. My face stung hard, even worse when the breeze moved over it.
A breeze. I held my breath and felt it again. A light breeze moved over my face, feather light and cold, stinging the scrape on my cheek. Slowly I opened one eye. Then the other. Breeze? That meant there was an outside, and it was close. Light could mean anything, it could mean a lamp, a torch, a window, a hole in the ceiling. Breeze meant outside. Outside. An end to the cave.
I rolled onto my front, and with my two hands I pulled myself forward, my nails filling with dirt and dust. My useless leg scraped along the floor. I pressed my elbows into the dirt and pushed my body forwards, my good leg propelling me as well. I lifted my face, feeling the breeze get stronger, the light making the cavern look slightly less ominous and gloomy.
I pulled myself along, half crawling, half dragging myself. The floor was going upwards, the incline small at first, getting more noticeable as I went on, the cavern walls getting closer together. The ceiling was getting lower. I wasn't claustrophobic, but even I felt the worry rising slightly.
It very soon got to the point that I could feel the ceiling pressing down on my shoulder blades, and I had to keep my face pressed to the floor. I pressed my foot against the wall instead of the floor to push me forwards. The space was tiny, and I was glad of my training with Steve making me slimmer and more toned, it allowed me to have the strength to pull my body but also fit through the gap. Not to mention I was about 5 foot and so had always been small. The only thing I wasn't grateful for was my boobs and butt. Puberty had hit hard and I don't know if you've ever had your breasts squished by being in a space just big enough to fit your body in, but it really just feels like an unnecessary pain. Just when I thought I couldn't take the tightness anymore the space began to get bigger, widening out, so I could lift my head up slightly.
The tunnel continued to widen and after about 20 metres the wall curved hard to the left, meaning that straight in front of me was the cavern wall. I could see where the light and the breeze was coming from now, a large crack in a stone in front of me. The crack was large, enough to let light and air in, but not large enough to get through. The space would have been big enough for me to walk upright in now, although I'd have to be stooping.
The crack went all up the wall, with a large chunk of rock missing about two thirds of the way up. The larger hole was about the length of my forearm and the width of my palm. I'd need to stand if I wanted to look through it, but from where I was lying on the floor I could see grey. Just grey. It was a change to the brown and tan of the walls around me.
I pushed onwards, moving steadily towards the crack, ignoring the rest of the tunnel to the left of me. I pulled myself upright and slowly got to my feet. As I stood, shoulders bent down to accommodate the space, I squeezed my face tightly and bit my lip. My leg was really bad now, but the position I had to stand in was worse as my knees had to be bent slightly.
Leaning on the wall for support I pressed my face to the crack, looking through. I could see a large space in front of me, similar to the first cave I'd fallen into. There were rocks dotted around, and vines were creeping in. I couldn't see the mouth of the cave, but from the shadows that I could see, and the increasing light, I knew that it must be beyond this wall.
I slumped down, my leg decided it wasn't going to keep supporting me anymore. I closed my eyes and leant the back of my head against the stone wall. I had to get through, but I wasn't strong enough to blast it and I didn't have any grenades on me. Besides I didn't want the entire cave system to come down on top of me, I'd only just narrowly missed being crushed by an entire set of apartments.
I needed to think outside the box. The crack meant that the rock here was already weak, and it seemed like the rest of the cavern was so thick it would be stable if only the wall fell. I placed my hand flat against the wall, my fingers spread wide.
I bit my lip and pressed my head further into the wall. Trying to use my powers was becoming physically painful, almost like it had been before I'd begun training with the Avengers to use them, how it had been for me for all those centuries. For the first time in ages it felt unnatural. I pushed myself harder, feeling the small but strong branches move out from my hand, creeping along the wall in all directions like how ivy spread around a tree trunk. The coloured scars on my cheek began to sting, as though someone was rubbing nettles into the left side of my face. I let out a small whimper of pain, but kept going.
The branches snaked over the wall, moving around the crack, pushing into the wall, burrowing into every weak spot in the stone. Some of it began to crumble away, small chunks of stone falling to the ground with a little plink noise. My face was throbbing, and I the stinging deeper in my skin, felt it all down my left arm and neck, moving further along the coloured scars.
A small groan of pain left my lips and my chest began shaking with the effort of creating and moving the small branches. My ears were ringing, my breathing laboured. I pictured Loki, lying in some forest somewhere, his skin cold, his chest no longer rising and falling. He needed me. He needed me. And god fucking damn it I needed him.
I pulled my hand away from the wall and screamed as I slammed it back against the rock, driving a tree trunk into the middle of the crack, my body leaning forward so that my other hand could direct a tight gust of wind against the centre.
There was a splintering noise. I moved my hands away, head turned to look at the wall I was leaning against. And then it all came thundering down, large and small chunks falling as the wall collapsed. I let out a yell and threw my hands over my head, eyes squeezing shut. When the noise stopped I opened my eyes, blinking hard in the all the dust. Nothing had hit me, and I soon realised why. All around me in a dome formation the air was quivering strangely, like that first time I'd really used my powers, way back before I'd been shot when I'd fought with Steve.
It was like a strange forcefield of air, protecting me. I glanced around. My hair was floating, again like it had done that first time. I let the protective air bubble down slowly, watching as the vibrating air melted away, and my hair fell back around my ears. What had been the cave wall was now a pile of rocks. There were still pieces of the wall intact though, mostly at the bottom.
I crawled over the rubble into the bigger cave. I could see the mouth of the cavern now, and the grey skies beyond, the fresh air hitting my face with welcome coolness. The rock floor continued past where the roof ended, making a large lip over what I assumed must have been a big drop. There were some trees on it, with small patches of straggly grass around their roots. Beyond that I could see a forest of pine trees in every direction far below.
There, on the edge of the lip, was Loki.
I gasped in relief. Somehow I managed to get to my feet, running as best I could through the cave, practically dragging my leg behind me as I went. My breathing was ragged, a raspy noise that sounded more like wheezing. I didn't look around the cave as I ran, my focus entirely on the man in front of me.
I fell to the floor beside him, my hands roaming over his body to check for any new injuries. His nose had been bleeding, but it wasn't anymore, just old blood on his upper lip and under his nose. He was still breathing but there was a pool of blood around his left thigh and under his head felt wet. What was it with left legs today? I was glad that his head wasn't bleed much though.
I took out one of my knives and used it to cut through the leg of my suit to create a make-shift bandage. I wrapped it tightly around the wound. I looked up, and realised we were very close to the edge.
"God damn it Loki," I muttered, "you couldn't have landed somewhere more convenient to bleed out on me, could you?" I put my hands under his shoulders and hauled him backwards, deeper into the mouth of the cave.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and got back to work. I pulled my belt from around my waist, taking off every added extra to it, so it was just the polyester belt. I tied it around the top of his thigh, clipping it together, and pulled tightly on the tab, giving it an extra few tugs for good measure. Tourniquets were not painless things so I was slightly glad he wasn't awake for this. When I was sure it was tight enough, I gently unwrapped the bandage I put on his leg and set it aside for later. I cut his trousers around the knife so I knew what I was working with.
I hissed through my teeth. It was deep, but the knife wasn't a big one thank god. I closed my eyes for a second, praying. Who I was praying to, I didn't know. I just needed him to be okay. I needed to do this right, and I knew I was probably not doing it right. I looked through everything I'd taken off my belt. I picked up a small pouch attachment and opened it. The small bottle of vodka wasn't ideal, but it was something. I poured the vodka over my hands, rubbing it in. It stung the small scratches on my palms and the backs of my hands, but I barely noticed.
With one hand pressed to the flesh around the knife, I grasped the handle with the other. I counted to three. Then counted to three again. I closed my eyes for a second time, trying to steel myself.
I pulled the knife out.
Blood began to pour from the open wound, covering my hand, pooling around my knees, even with the tourniquet the blood was alarming. I flushed it out with some water from my hand, even though it was a weak spurt it did clear the area somewhat, then I poured a little of the vodka onto the open wound. Quickly covering the gash with both hands, one on top of the other, and I blasted it with a small but strong heat, the best I could manage. I pulled my hands away. The bleeding had stopped. I'd been able to cauterise the wound, but that wasn't the last of my problems. I grabbed the vodka again and poured some more onto the skin. I moved my hand over the cavern floor and a plant wriggled upwards.
I snapped off a piece of aloe vera and cut it open with the knife, placing both sides over the freshly cauterised skin. I undid my belt from around his leg and put it to the side, before replacing the bandage I'd used before, tying it so the aloe vera didn't fall off. I crawled over to his head and carefully lifted the back of his head to examine the damage. There wasn't much to report, just a small cut at the back from the look and feel of it. God he was going to hate me for doing this, but he could just shift-shape it back.
With my knife I hacked at his long hair, the locks falling to the floor of the cave. I braided that hair, I thought to myself. I used to brush through it with my fingers, and now it's on the floor of some cave in the middle of nowhere. I could feel the guilt bubbling up inside me, but I ignored it. I needed to see the back of his head to make sure. At least I wasn't shaving it all off.
When it was finally short enough for me to see what was doing on, I held a flame near it for better light. He'd hit it alright, but the cut wasn't very big. I was more worried about any brain injuries. I didn't know how Asgardian medicine worked though. Could they get brain injuries? Thor had been hit so many times in the head I supposed not. A hit to the head like this wouldn't usually cause him to pass out, so there must have been something else.
I dragged Loki further into the cave, away from the puddle of blood. Very gently I pulled his long Asgardian leather jacket from around his shoulders and bundled it up, resting his head on it like a pillow. I groaned and leaned back against one of the boulders. The sun was beginning to set outside, it was going to get very cold indeed.
"God's sake." I muttered and hoisted myself upright. Ignoring the pain in my leg was nearly impossible, but somehow I did it. I staggered to the opening of the cave, and moved my bloodied hands and in arching motion. Thick green vines covered in large leaves began to fall down the front of the entrance, layer after layer, until they reached the floor of the cave. It wasn't exactly a wall, but it would do so long as we didn't have heavy rain or wind.
I lit a fire in the middle of the cave, close to Loki, building it up with logs I produced. I made another longer log to sit on, next to the fire. The flames danced around the walls, lighting up the cavern with an amber glow.
Unable to sit still any longer I got to my feet and as I tried to take a step forwards I fell, hitting my face on the ground for the second time that day because of my stupid leg. This time I wasn't so lucky. I felt blood spurt out of my nose, warm and metallic in my mouth.
I groaned and rolled onto my back, watching the shadows dance on the ceiling as blood and tears flowed down my cheek.
I could do nothing but wait.